How this cute puppy was saved by gene mutation
A dog called Ringo was saved by a gene mutation that protected him from a deadly muscle-destroying disease.
A golden retriever named Ringo was supposed to be suffering from a deadly muscle wasting disease called 'Duchenne muscular dystrophy' and not expected to live very long. But he managed to leave researchers scratching their heads when he didn't develop symptoms of the disease.
He was born in 2003 at a Brazilian kennel where researchers bred him along with other puppies that had the muscle dystrophy gene to help provide insight to the untreatable and ultimately fatal human disease.
The disease is caused by a genetic mutation on the X chromosome which makes muscles deteriorate and the body fails to repair any muscle damage.
Ringo, unlike his littermates, surprisingly didn't develop severe symptoms even though he had the mutation.
When one of his own puppies, Suflair, also didn't develop any severe symptoms, scientists figured out what the lucky golden retrievers had in common: a gene mutation.
The researchers found out that little Ringo was born with another mutation that protected him from the disease and passed that mutation on to his puppy.
This could prove to be a huge breakthrough for scientists as they study the unique mutation to find treatments for the deadly disease that affects one in every 3500 boys born worldwide and typically kills by age 40.
Ringo lived the normal life-span of a golden retriever and died last year aged 11 while his pup is now 10 years old.
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