The report states the child's parents turned to an unnamed fertility clinic after failing to have a child after six years of marriage. The treatment the mother received is unknown, but it appeared to work as she soon became pregnant. Then, late in her third trimester, she had her first ultrasound and it showed the child had serious problems. Too late to abort, she was rushed to the hospital for an induced labor.
The child was diagnosed with a rare chromosomal disorder, known as cyclopia. She was born with a single eye in the center of her forehead, no nose and her brain fused into a single hemisphere. With such severe deformities, it was a miracle that the girl survived even a few minutes after delivery. Yet now, 11 days later, she has lived significantly longer than other cyclopean cases. ...
Cyclopia affects about one child in a million. It can occur when a mother suffers from extremely low cholesterol or diabetes, or a foreign agent is introduced during pregnancy.
The active ingredient in Cyclopamine was discovered in 1957 when a batch of sheep in Idaho who had been grazing on wild corn lily gave birth to multiple one-eyed kids. Medical experts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered that toxins in the corn lily are powerful teratogens that alter fetal development. The scientists named the toxin Cyclopamine after the one-eyed sheep.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
CYCLOPS BABY CAUSED BY ANTI-CANCER DRUG?
Wired magazine has the speculation, based on an internal hospital report. The baby's mother may have been taking an experimental drug for cancer patients. The drug's name? Cyclopamine:
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4 comments:
"Cyclopamine blocks an essential gene for embryonic development called Sonic Hedgehog."
SEGA?
Any chance of her running against Aunt Norma?
Once again, we are reminded of self-treatment, with "natural" compounds, promoted and sold over the internet.
Cyclopamine is a very powerful mutagen, one of the most powerful ones I know of, as such it *MAY* have some use in treatment with some huge caveates. One of the main ones being the absolute prohibition of administration in pregnant women, and other measures taken in women of childbearing age, by the physician, to insure non pregnancy.
The danger of buying these "natural" remedies which are unlicensed and unregulated in the US simple cannot be overstated. Some are fairly benign. None that I am aware of actually have been shown to do what the sellers claim they do. Your local healthfood store is pulling off a $50 billion a year scam in the US alone.
Somebody needs to keep an eye on that kid.
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