Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Researchers Finally Find Cause of SIDS

Created: 09/05/2022, 10:24 am

By: Judith Brown

In 2020, 84 babies died in Germany from sudden infant death syndrome.

(Icon image) © Cavan Images/Imago

Infants die of sudden infant death syndrome in Germany every year.

Researchers have discovered an enzyme responsible for SIDS.

Sidney – One of the scariest things a parent can imagine is that they look down at their sleeping baby and find them dead in their bed.

In the fortunately rare cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), a previously healthy infant dies completely unexpectedly, without an explanation being found so far.

Now, for the first time, there is hope for parents.

Scientists at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital appear to have found one of the causes of this phenomenon.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Researchers Finally Find One of the Causes of SIDS

Sudden infant death syndrome usually occurs in the first year of life, between two and four months of age.

The risk increases when the baby is in a dangerous sleeping position.

The older the baby gets, the lower the risk of SIDS.

After completing the first year of life it is even almost zero.

Boys are affected more often than girls.

While infants still die from SIDS every year, the number of cases has decreased significantly in recent decades.

According to the University Hospital Bonn, 84 babies died in Germany in 2020 due to SIDS.

also dr

Carmel Therese Harrington lost her son Damien to SIDS.

Because of this experience, the biochemist and later lawyer went back to research.

It was important to her to advance the search for the cause of sudden infant death.

Together with her team from Westmead Children's Hospital, she has now achieved the unbelievable: They apparently discovered one of the reasons why the otherwise healthy infants suddenly died in their sleep and published the report in the journal The Lancet eBioMedicine.

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Scientists discover enzyme responsible for sudden infant death syndrome

Earlier studies had already suggested that there might be a defect in the wake-up mechanism, since the babies died in their sleep.

It was thought that the part of the brain that controls the arousal of sleep and breathing might be affected, and that babies don't startle when they stop breathing.

Harrington's team was able to confirm the mechanism of this theory with their study.

The only difference is that it is not a defect, as suspected, but an enzyme.

Enzyme influences arousal between sleep and respiration

This enzyme plays an important role in communication in the brain.

According to the researchers, too little of it can disrupt and influence the arousal between sleep and breathing.

The scientists compared dried blood samples from more than 60 infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome with samples from healthy babies.

They found that the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was lower in babies who died from SIDS than in healthy and alive infants and other infant deaths.

Editor's note:

This text has already appeared in the past.

He was of particular interest to many readers.

That's why we're offering it again.

For parents, this discovery could bring great hope.

Because, according to the researchers, the enzyme could be used as a biomarker to better identify infants at risk of sudden infant death.

Here, for example, they want to develop a screening test to minimize the risk.

This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication.

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