Cellular cause of SIDS

Researchers in the US have discovered a method to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

University of Chicago researchers have discovered a method to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which is one of the main factors responsible for post-neonatal mortality.

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According to the study, SIDS is responsible for around 3,000 infants annually and is usually caused by a malfunction in the cellular mechanism.

In some of the earlier studies, researchers have said that riluzole, a drug that blocks the cell's sodium channel, could silence pacemaker neurons yet the rhythm of the network remained active.

But according to Jan-Marino Ramirez, the lead author of the report, riluzole didn't disable all of the pacemakers, which is why the rhythm continued. He found that there are two groups of pacemaker neurons, one of which does not depend on sodium channels to operate, but on calcium channels. Only four out of 172 pacemaker cells were not affected by riluzole.

"You have to have a perfect recording in order to get those cells. It's not that these neurons are more powerful, just more elusive," said Ramirez.

Harvard University's Hannah Kinney found that children who die of SIDS have decreased levels of serotonin in areas critical for respiration. In the pacemaker neurons critical for gasping, serotonin regulates the sodium channel.