Types of Tay-Sachs

There are three main types of Tay-Sachs. The most common form is Classic Infantile, which is when symptoms appear as a baby. The symptoms also tend to be more intense and life span tends to be very short. This is usually caused majorly by the lack of any hex A enzyme. Inability to hear, see or move are just a few symptoms.

Juvenile Tay-Sachs occur at a later age. Symptoms are the same as, but progress more slowly and aren't as intense. Symptoms can start to appear anytime from the age 2 to 10. Similar to the Infantile version where symptoms appear at about 3 to 6 months. This is also by a lack of the enzyme hes A, but there is probably a very small amount that had been able to keep the GM2 ganglioside lipid from growing as quickly as Infantile. By 10 to 15 years of age, the build up causes the child to stop being responsive, leading to death in a few years.

Late-Onset Tay-Sachs tends to be misdiagnosed way too often for diseases like ALS. Late-Onset Tay-Sachs symptoms start to show in adults from their twenties to their thirties. This progresses a lot slower than Juvenile and Infantile Tay-Sachs but the symptoms are still pretty similar. The hex A enzyme in people with Late-Onset tends to have some hex A that has been able to maintain the build up of excess lipid until now.


In general, babies with Infantile tend to lack all hex A. Juvenile contains a little more than Infantile, resulting in the later appearances of symptoms and not as severe. Late-Onset contains even more of the needed hex A, meaning symptoms and deterioration takes longer.