News
February 29 is Rare Disease Day
02/27 
Rare Disease Day® takes place worldwide to raise awareness among policymakers and the public about rare diseases and their impact on patients’ lives.
Visit www.rarediseaseday.org to learn more about the the 300 million people worldwide living with a rare disease, their families and carers.
Human hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase.As with all metabolic pathways, serious problems occur if steps in the pathway are blocked. Some people inherit a rare defective version of HGPRT, which leads to a serious illness termed Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. Since the enzyme is not active, purine bases build up causing severe neurological problems, including a dangerous compulsion for self-injury. In other cases, people with partially active HGPRT have problems with gout, as the pathways for discarding excess purines are overloaded and the waste products build up in the joints. Read more at Molecule of the Month
