Down syndrome Provide Genetic Models and Key Roles of Human Chromosome 21 Gene Targets in the Elucidation of Molecular Pathways Associated to Cell Cycle Alterations, Leukaemia and Cancer for Development of Potential Drugs and Therapeutics

Trisomy 21 or Down syndrome, caused by the triplication of human chromosome 21, is the most frequent genetic disorder with hard impact on public health. The overdosage of genes on this chromosome determines transcriptional alterations and dosage imbalance of a lot of proteins affecting several molecular pathways involved in several human diseases. Interestingly, some key human chromosome 21 genes play important roles in cell cycle and cell growth and could, with the recent progress in the developmental genetics, provide significant elucidation of molecular mechanisms involved in Down syndrome associated diseases related to cell cycle alterations, leukaemia, tumors and cancers, in the perspective of development of new drugs and treatments.