Scientists Study Lithuanian Man Suffering From Premature Aging
RALPH WENGE, CNN ANCHOR: How to stay young forever is a quest that has attracted explorers and doctors for hundreds of years. Researchers are now focusing their attention on human genes, and they're hoping to find some answers when they solve the mystery of a man in Lithuania who has aged far beyond his years. LNK News has his story.</s>GRAZINA SVIDERSKYTE, LNK NEWS REPORTER (voice-over): Albadez Gudalowskus (ph) lives in this small town, Yeznas (ph), about 100 kilometers from the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. Up until his 20s, he lived a normal life. He got a job, married his girlfriend, and made plans to start a family of his own. But six years ago, just after their daughter was worn, Albadez started to change. His skin became very greasy; his face, neck and hands wrinkled. Although, he's only 27, Albadez looks like an old man and he has to carry a passport around just to prove his real age.</s>ALBADEZ GUDALOWSKUS (through translator): In and around Yeznas, everybody knows me, so I don't need to explain who I am, but if I go further, I always need my passport. My face wrinkled in the space of a year, and because I didn't change my photo and passport, everybody thought it must belong to my brother and not me.</s>SVIDERSKYTE: Specialists from the Lithuanian Human Genetics Center suggested that Albadez could be suffering Werner syndrome. A precise diagnosis and all the answers of what happened and why are hidden in this tiny thread of DNA extracted from his blood sample. But Lithuanian specialists are not able to identify the mutated genes which could be the cause of this speeded up aging process. Professor Algirdas Utkus has examined Albadez for two years, but is extremely cautious about making a specific diagnosis.</s>SVIDERSKYTE: Not long ago, specialists in Russia confirmed all this, and a few months ago a clinical geneticist from London, Professor Michael Patton, visited Vilnius. After examining patients suffering from unexplained conditions, he took their blood samples back to London for proper genetic tests. For this scientist, Albadez's case is of special importance.</s>MICHAEL A. PATTON, GENETICIST: We hope that we can perhaps get one of the research groups to look at the genetic material in that patient, because I think we will learn something about the genes that control the aging process from studying such cases.</s>SVIDERSKYTE: But Professor Patton says that may take a year, and while similar tests are going on in Russia, all Albadez and his family can do is wait. While the diagnosis is uncertain, Albadez refuses to take any medicine.</s>GUDALOWSKUS: I have a sad situation. Some doctors say my skin could wrinkle because of a huge amount of</s>SVIDERSKYTE: If this is Werner syndrome, Albadez is unlikely to live long enough to see his daughter's wedding day. Doctors say there is no effective medicine to cope with this disease, but Albadez's family says it's better to know the truth than to live with the uncertainty. Grazina Sviderskyte, LNK News, for CNN WORLD REPORT.