By Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay Reporter. SUNDAY, Feb. 9, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Cat bites may look less serious than dog bites, but beware: They can cause dangerous infections, particularly when they involve the hand, new research indicates.
Donate to the National Ataxia Foundation. Causes of Ataxia. The hereditary ataxias are genetic, which means they are caused by a defect in a certain gene that is present from the start of a person's life. All of us have genes that have little mistakes or variations but most of these do not cause disease, they are called mutations.
General Discussion. Tay-Sachs disease is a rare, neurodegenerative disorder in which deficiency of an enzyme (hexosaminidase A) results in excessive accumulation of certain fats (lipids) known as gangliosides in the brain and nerve cells.ay-Sachs disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. The disorder results from changes (mutations) of a gene known as the HEXA gene, which regulates production of the hexosaminidase A enzyme. The HEXA gene has been mapped to the long arm (q) of chromosome 15 (15q23-q24).