What are the similarities and differences between Menkes disease and Wilson's disease? Discuss cause, symptoms, and treatments

Answer 1

?Both Menkes disease and Wilson's disease are both caused by improper copper circulation. A person with Menkes disease would exhibit signs of mental retardation, poor muscle tone, and seizures while failing to thrive, while a person with Wilson's disease would experience tremors, impaired speech, and personality changes. To treat Menkes disease, the goal is to increase circulating copper, as this disease is associated with a failure to release copper from the digestive tract. To bypass the digestive tract, intravenous copper is given to these patients. For patients with Wilson's disease, these patients accumulate high levels of copper in the liver and brain, so the goal is to remove excess copper from the body through the use of chelating agents, while preventing copper from absorbing into the body by both decreasing dietary amounts and increasing zinc intake with supplements, which interferes with copper absorption.