Q. Explain Inborn Errors of Metabolism?
Some of the disorders caused by inborn error of metabolism namely phenylketonuria, tyrosinemia, maple syrup urine disease, homocystinuria and galactosemia. You may recall studying about these metabolic disorders. An inborn error of metabolism is a genetic error that alters the production of a protein. In many cases, the protein is an enzyme. When the enzyme is absent, the functions that depend on that enzyme cannot proceed. Incompletely metabolized products accumulate in the body. This leads to a variety of problems and in many cases it becomes fatal. Further, this imbalance creates problems in other metabolic pathways that add to existing problem. The goal of therapy is to prevent the accumulation of toxic metabolites and to replace essential nutrients that are deficient as a result of the defective metabolic pathway.