Science has made considerable progress but nature and human anatomy always throws new challenges to the contemporary human tools to pursue even further deep into the infinite knowledge of the universe. In 1993 the human visionaries were struck again by a new category of human illness of the brain called Adrenoleukodystrophy. This disease has given new hurdles for the scientists to enhance their research in the field of genetics.
Adrenoleukodystrophy, as the name suggests, is a disease that is marked by the degeneration of the adrenal glands; responsible for metabolism of the body and suppression of inflammatory reactions in the body. It also facilitates the excretion of salts in the urine, maintains blood pressure in the body and facilitates blood supply to our muscles and brain; in brief it frames an essential part in the immune system of the body.
Unlike meningitis the disease is marked by loss of myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells in the brain, the fatty layer which acts as an insulator between the neurons and the brain, gradually resulting in the degeneration of adrenal glands, disabling the functions managed by the gland in the optimisation of human body.
A number of diseases are genetic but like all genes on the human X and Y chromosomes are different, the disease also marks different hosts and carriers, in this case the carriers are female and the hosts are male. In a layman language, men are mostly affected by this disease in comparison to female. A similar comparison can be done with the occurrence of baldness gene in humans where women are rarely affected while men are generally affected. In brief its occurrence will only be visualized in women when the gene on both the XX of the chromosomes are present rather than just single X while the case is reverse in men with single X in XY chromosome.
Today due to the advancement of gene therapy it is clear that there is a possible cure of various genetic or acquired diseases including in the treatment of X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy and coronary heart diseases such as atherosclerosis.