Datum: Tuesday, 16 May 2023, 17.00 – 18.00 CET, per Zoom
Speaker: Jonathan D. Santoro, MD Bio
Translation: Croatian, Czech, French, German, Turkish and Ukrainian
Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9316830159137/WN_6axCoWaYQlykg3uukYWhIA
Down Syndrome Regression Disorder: An Emerging Clinical Entity Responsive to Immune Therapy
Neurocognitive regression in young persons with Down syndrome has been reported since 1946. This condition, often in individuals too old for autism spectrum disorder and too young for Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses have remained under-diagnosed and under-treated historically.
Data from the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has identified that this condition may be caused by inflammation in the brain in persons with Down syndrome and is highly responsive to treatment with immunotherapy. This lecture will review the signs and symptoms of the condition and some of the emerging treatment data available.
Biography
Dr. Santoro serves as the Director of Neuroimmunology and Demyelinating Disorders Program and Director of Research for the Neurologic Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He is also an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
Dr. Santoro completed his undergraduate, masters, and medical degrees at Tulane University. He completed residencies in pediatrics and child neurology at Stanford University subsequently had sub-specialty training in neuroimmunology at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Santoro is one of only a handful of national clinician-scientists who treats neurologic disorders associated with Down syndrome. He has been instrumental in identifying systemic vascular abnormalities in persons with Down syndrome and moyamoya disease, a rare stroke disorder which affects persons with Down syndrome 26 times more frequently than the general population.
Dr. Santoro also has clinical research expertise in neuroinflammation as it is related to cerebrovascular disease and neurocognitive disorders such as Down Syndrome Regression Disorder (DSRD), of which he spoken on internationally. In addition to his clinical and research activities, Dr. Santoro advocates for persons with disabilities at both the state and federal level through the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Neurology.