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| | ArabMedicare.com News
Dubai | November 19, 2006
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Dr. Mahmoud Taleb Al Ali, Director,
Centre for Arab Genomic Studies (CAGS) in Dubai, and Consultant
Genetist and Head of the Genetics Centre at the Al Wasl Hospital
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Defining code
of Arab genomics
By Debasree S., Contributing Editor
An Exclusive
Interview with Dr. Mahmoud Taleb Al Ali, Director of the Centre for
Arab Genomic Studies (CAGS)....
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(ArabMedicare.com News) For
generations, inherited genetic disorders have been a major health
concern in the Middle East, yet awareness campaigns, screening and
detection programs have largely been lacking, says Dr. Mahmoud Taleb
Al Ali, Director of the recently established Centre for Arab Genomic
Studies (CAGS) in Dubai, and Consultant Genetist and Head of the
Genetics Centre at the Al Wasl Hospital.
Several social and cultural trends have contributed to a high
prevalence of inherited genetic disorders in the Middle East.
Consanguineous marriages and women continuing to bear children until
their menopause have increased the population's predisposition to
inherited disorders like thalassemia and glucose-6-phosphate
dehydogenase deficiency.
"At the CAGS, we work in tandem to bridge this gap, pioneer
research into problem areas and spearhead awareness campaigns that
will help curb the incidence of such disorders in successive
generations," says Dr. Mahmoud in an exclusive interview with
ArabMedicare.com.
Established under the aegis of the Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al
Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences in 2004, the CAGS, is the largest
and most concerted effort by the government, to define and
characterize genetic disorders among Arabs and suggest future
strategies for positive intervention.
"While the pattern of genetic distortion has remained the same
in Arab population, there has been no central platform for sharing
of experiences and case studies. The CAGS is aimed at providing
fresh medical insights into the pan-Arab genetic disorders through
the collaboration of research efforts among all the Arab
countries," said Dr. Mahmoud who has been recently honored by
the International Hospital Federation as one of the pioneers in his
field.
The compilation of the CAGS Catalogue of Transmission Genetics in
Arabs (CTGA), a comprehensive database on the incidence of inherited
disorders in the Arab population has been a step forward in the
right direction.
The successful compilation of the database (now available in PDF
format) has sounded a clarion call to the international scientific
community to initiate multidisciplinary research -and has the
potential to eventually realize the dream of an ambitious Arab Human
Genome Project.
"The CTGA is the first comprehensive database on Arab genetic
disorders and includes a complete profile of each of the diseases,
including the rate of incidence, the doctor credited with diagnosing
the disease, features etc," says Dr. Mahmoud. All clinicians,
genetists, researchers and academicians in the Middle East have been
invited to contribute the findings of their research to the CTGA
database. "It is a massive community effort and we are looking
at the database growing exponentially and providing a valuable tool
for research for the entire international medical fraternity."
So far, the CTGA database has revealed more than 1,050 abnormal
Mendelian characters (leading to genetic disorders) that are
specific to the Arab region including the UAE. These originate
mostly from Arabs in the Maghreb area (Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria)
as well as Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. The study has also confirmed
that a majority of the genetic diseases in Arabs result from single
gene alterations whereas complex genetic diseases account for less
than 1 per cent genetic abnormalities. "This proves that if
proper screening and diagnostic facilities are in place, the
occurrence of such disorders could be prevented in the future,"
explains Dr. Mahmoud.
In the UAE alone, research has shown that the rate of consanguineous
marriages increased from 39 per cent to 50.5 per cent in a single
generation (1997). Consequentially, a high frequency in genetic
disorders and congenital anomalies have been found to be the leading
cause of infant mortality accounting for 40.3 per cent of all infant
deaths in the country.
One of the significant milestones achieved by the CAGS in recent
times, has been the broadening of the base of reported genetic
orders in the UAE. "When we started off, we had just 16
disorders to study, now 250 disorders (specific to the UAE) have
already been identified including thalassemia, sickle cell anemia
and glucose-6-phosphate dehydogenase deficiency which have been
found to be most common. Another area of study has included the
overwhelming number of recessively inherited genetic disorders have
gone largely undetected in the past."
The CAGS has ambitious plans for the future and is currently
cooperating with the Human Genome Organisation in the field of SNP
mapping of the Arab race. This done, the CAGS would have contributed
effectively to the unlocking of the code to genetic disorders in the
Middle East and treaded a new path on bioinformatics.
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