Datum: Tuesday, 16 May 2023, 17.00 – 18.00 CET, via Zoom
Speaker: Jonathan D. Santoro, MD Bio
Translation: Croatian, Czech, French, German, and Ukrainian
The webinar is available below.
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, has remained underdiagnosed 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 Down Syndrome Regression Disorder and some of the emerging treatment data available.
Biography
Dr. Santoro is serving 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 treat 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 that 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 has spoken internationally. In addition to his clinical and research activities, Dr. Santoro advocates for persons with disabilities at both the state and federal levels through the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Neurology.
