Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0004134 (ataxia)
 15,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The serine/cysteine hydrolase inhibitor phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) markedly intensifies the clinical expression of organophosphorus-induced delayed neurotoxicity (OPIDN) in adult chickens when administered after organophosphate exposure. In this study, we have examined the ability of PMSF post-treatment to affect sensitivity to OPIDN in developing animals at ages normally showing resistance. Chickens (35, 49 or 70 days of age) were treated with diisopropylphosphorofluoridate (DFP, 2 mg/kg, sc) and then treated four hours later with PMSF (90 mg/kg, sc) or vehicle only and examined for clinical signs of ataxia and incoordination. Chickens treated with DFP alone showed a marked age-related increase in the severity of motor deficits. Birds treated with DFP followed by PMSF showed more extensive clinical deficits relative to those treated with DFP only, but relatively similar degrees of motor dysfunction among the age groups. Cervical spinal cord samples processed by the Fink-Heimer degeneration method indicated that PMSF post-treatment induced more extensive axonal degeneration in all age groups relative to treatment with DFP only. As the DFP treatment alone caused greater than or equal to 90% inhibition of neurotoxic esterase activity (NTE, the putative molecular target site for OPIDN), interaction with NTE by PMSF does not appear to be involved in potentiation. We hypothesize that PMSF potentiates OPIDN through impairment of a physiological process which normally imparts resistance to young animals and which regresses during development.
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PMID:Phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride alters sensitivity to organophosphorus-induced delayed neurotoxicity in developing animals. 143 55

Acivicin is an investigational amino acid antitumor antibiotic currently being evaluated in Phase II clinical trials. In humans acivicin causes reversible, dose-limiting central nervous system (CNS) effects including somnolence, ataxia, personality changes, and hallucinations. We have observed and reported previously that acivicin-treated cats exhibit symptoms (ataxia, sedation, somnolence) resembling CNS toxicity reported in humans. We hypothesized that if acivicin uptake into brain were mediated by a saturable transport system common to endogenous amino acids, drug uptake and CNS toxicity might be blocked by elevation of normal amino acid concentrations in circulating plasma. To test this hypothesis, cats received constant-rate i.v. infusions of either saline or Aminosyn, 10% (a commercially available mixture of 16 amino acids not containing glutamine, glutamate, aspartate, or cysteine) for 4 h prior to and 18 h subsequent to administration of acivicin at a dose producing marked behavioral changes in control cats. Presence or absence of ataxia and sedation were noted at intervals after acivicin treatment. Results showed that Aminosyn infusion prevented CNS symptoms in six of eight cats. Subsequent experiments showed that acivicin levels in brain tissue of Aminosyn-treated cats were 13% of the drug levels in saline-infused cats. Acivicin levels in most peripheral tissues were also decreased significantly by Aminosyn infusion but not to the extent observed in brain. Decreased brain uptake was shown to be due to a combination of amino acid blockade of drug transport into that organ and of increased total body clearance of drug. Concomitant Aminosyn treatment did not alter the efficacy of acivicin in mice bearing L1210 leukemia or MX-1 human mammary carcinoma. Further studies demonstrated that a solution containing only four large neutral amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, and valine) could also protect cats from acivicin-induced CNS toxicity, apparently without increasing acivicin total body clearance. However, a mixture of several other amino acids contained in Aminosyn (alanine, arginine, tyrosine, histidine, proline, serine, and glycine) failed to prevent CNS toxicity. We conclude that cotreatment with Aminosyn or a mixture of large neutral amino acids could protect cancer patients from acivicin-induced CNS toxicity without ablating antitumor efficacy.
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PMID:Prevention of central nervous system toxicity of the antitumor antibiotic acivicin by concomitant infusion of an amino acid mixture. 238 52

The effect of .75% dietary butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and 1% cysteine on the toxicity of Lathyrus odoratus seed to Japanese quail and broiler chicks was examined. In both species, the feeding of Lathyrus seed as a component of a complete diet depressed (P less than .05) body weight gain and feed intake. Typical signs of lathyrism, including ruffled feathers, enlarged hocks, curled toes, ataxia, leg paralysis, and mortality, were observed. Neither BHA nor cysteine exerted protective effects against the lathyrogenic effects. As assessed by mortality, these additives appeared instead to potentiate Lathyrus toxicity.
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PMID:Effects of dietary butylated hydroxyanisole and cysteine on toxicity of Lathyrus odoratus to broiler and Japanese quail chicks. 337 72

Two patients with a progressive ataxia are presented with clinical features consistent with classic Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA), but also with features unusual for FRDA. Analysis of DNA showed that each patient is heterozygous for the expanded GAA repeat of FRDA, but carries a base change on his other frataxin allele. For one patient a non-conservative arginine to cysteine amino acid change is predicted at amino acid 165 whereas the other mutation is found at the junction of exon one and intron one. Muscle biopsy showed an absence of frataxin immunoreactivity in the patient harbouring the intronic mutation, confirming the pathological nature of the base change. These mutations extend the range of point mutations seen in FRDA, and agree with recent reports suggesting phenotypic variation in patients with FRDA harbouring point mutations in conjunction with an expanded GAA repeat.
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PMID:Frataxin point mutations in two patients with Friedreich's ataxia and unusual clinical features. 1076 3

Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is a fatal, autosomal recessive lipidosis characterized by lysosomal accumulation of unesterified cholesterol and multiple neurological symptoms, such as vertical supranuclear ophthalmoplegia, progressive ataxia, and dementia. More than 90% of cases of NPC are due to a defect in Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1), a late endosomal, integral membrane protein that plays a role in cholesterol transport or homeostasis. Biochemical diagnosis of NPC has relied on the use of patient skin fibroblasts in an assay to demonstrate delayed low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-derived cholesterol esterification and a cytological technique-filipin staining-to demonstrate the intracellular accumulation of cholesterol. A small percentage of patients, referred to as "NPC variants," present with clinical symptoms of NPC but show near-normal results of these biochemical tests, making laboratory confirmation of NPC disease problematic. Here, we demonstrate that NPC-variant fibroblast samples can be detected as sphingolipid storage disease cells, using a fluorescent sphingolipid analog, BODIPY-lactosylceramide. This lipid accumulated in endosomes/lysosomes in variant cells preincubated with LDL cholesterol but targeted to the Golgi complex in normal cells under these conditions. The reproducibility of this technique was validated in a blinded study. In addition, we performed mutation analysis of the NPC1 gene in NPC variant and "classical" NPC cell samples and found a high incidence of specific mutations within the cysteine-rich region of NPC1 in variants. We also found that 5 of the 12 variant cell samples had no apparent defect in NPC1 but were otherwise indistinguishable from other variant cells. This is a surprising result, since, in general, approximately 90% of patients with NPC possess defects in NPC1. Our findings should be useful for the detection of NPC variants and also may provide significant new insight regarding NPC1 genotype/phenotype correlations.
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PMID:Niemann-Pick C variant detection by altered sphingolipid trafficking and correlation with mutations within a specific domain of NPC1. 1134 31

Mice that are homozygous with respect to a mutation (ax(J)) in the ataxia (ax) gene develop severe tremors by 2-3 weeks of age followed by hindlimb paralysis and death by 6-10 weeks of age. Here we show that ax encodes ubiquitin-specific protease 14 (Usp14). Ubiquitin proteases are a large family of cysteine proteases that specifically cleave ubiquitin conjugates. Although Usp14 can cleave a ubiquitin-tagged protein in vitro, it is unable to process polyubiquitin, which is believed to be associated with the protein aggregates seen in Parkinson disease, spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1; ref. 4) and gracile axonal dystrophy (GAD). The physiological substrate of Usp14 may therefore contain a mono-ubiquitin side chain, the removal of which would regulate processes such as protein localization and protein activity. Expression of Usp14 is significantly altered in ax(J)/ax(J) mice as a result of the insertion of an intracisternal-A particle (IAP) into intron 5 of Usp14. In contrast to other neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson disease and SCA1 in humans and GAD in mice, neither ubiquitin-positive protein aggregates nor neuronal cell loss is detectable in the central nervous system (CNS) of ax(J) mice. Instead, ax(J) mice have defects in synaptic transmission in both the central and peripheral nervous systems. These results suggest that ubiquitin proteases are important in regulating synaptic activity in mammals.
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PMID:Synaptic defects in ataxia mice result from a mutation in Usp14, encoding a ubiquitin-specific protease. 1236 14

Iron is a vitally important element in mammalian metabolism because of its unsurpassed versatility as a biologic catalyst. However, when not appropriately shielded or when present in excess, iron plays a key role in the formation of extremely toxic oxygen radicals, which ultimately cause peroxidative damage to vital cell structures. Organisms are equipped with specific proteins designed for iron acquisition, export, transport, and storage as well as with sophisticated mechanisms that maintain the intracellular labile iron pool at an appropriate level. These systems normally tightly control iron homeostasis but their failure can lead to iron deficiency or iron overload and their clinical consequences. This review describes several rare iron loading conditions caused by genetic defects in some of the proteins involved in iron metabolism. A dramatic decrease in the synthesis of the plasma iron transport protein, transferrin, leads to a massive accumulation of iron in nonhematopoietic tissues but virtually no iron is available for erythropoiesis. Humans and mice with hypotransferrinemia have a remarkably similar phenotype. Homozygous defects in a recently identified gene encoding transferrin receptor 2 lead to iron overload (hemochromatosis type 3) with symptoms similar to those seen in patients with HFE-associated hereditary hemochromatosis (hemochromatosis type 1). Transferrin receptor 2 is primarily expressed in the liver but it is unclear how mutant forms cause iron overload. Mutations in the gene encoding the iron exporter, ferroportin 1, cause iron overload characterized by iron accumulation in macrophages yet normal plasma iron levels. Plasma iron, together with dominant inheritance, discriminates iron overload due to ferroportin mutations (hemochromatosis type 4) from hemochromatosis type 1. Heme oxygenase 1 is essential for the catabolism of heme and in the recycling of hemoglobin iron in macrophages. Homozygous heme oxygenase 1 deletion in mice leads to a paradoxical accumulation of nonheme iron in macrophages, hepatocytes, and many other cells and is associated with low plasma iron levels, anemia, endothelial cell damage, and decreased resistance to oxidative stress. A similar phenotype occurred in a child with severe heme oxygenase 1 deficiency. Recently, a mutation in the L-subunit of ferritin has been described that causes the formation of aberrant L-ferritin with an altered C-terminus. Individuals with this mutation in one allele of L-ferritin have abnormal aggregates of ferritin and iron in the brain, primarily in the globus pallidus. Patients with this dominantly inherited late-onset disease present with symptoms of extrapyramidal dysfunction. Mice with a targeted disruption of a gene for iron regulatory protein 2 (IRP2), a translational repressor of ferritin, misregulate iron metabolism in the intestinal mucosa and the central nervous system. Significant amounts of ferritin and iron accumulate in white matter tracts and nuclei, and adult IRP2-deficient mice develop a movement disorder consisting of ataxia, bradykinesia, and tremor. Mutations in the frataxin gene are responsible for Friedreich ataxia, the most common of the inherited ataxias. Frataxin appears to regulate mitochondrial iron (or iron-sulfur cluster) export and the neurologic and cardiac manifestations of Friedreich ataxia are due to iron-mediated mitochondrial toxicity. Finally, patients with Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome, an autosomal recessive, progressive neurodegenerative disorder, have mutations in a novel pantothenate kinase gene (PANK2). The cardinal feature of this extrapyramidal disease is pathologic iron accumulation in the globus pallidus. The defect in PANK2 is predicted to cause the accumulation of cysteine, which binds iron and causes oxidative stress in the iron-rich globus pallidus.
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PMID:Rare causes of hereditary iron overload. 1238

We report a nonepisodic autosomal dominant (AD) spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) not caused by a nucleotide repeat expansion that is, to our knowledge, the first such SCA. The AD SCAs currently comprise a group of > or =16 genetically distinct neurodegenerative conditions, all characterized by progressive incoordination of gait and limbs and by speech and eye-movement disturbances. Six of the nine SCAs for which the genes are known result from CAG expansions that encode polyglutamine tracts. Noncoding CAG, CTG, and ATTCT expansions are responsible for three other SCAs. Approximately 30% of families with SCA do not have linkage to the known loci. We recently mapped the locus for an AD SCA in a family (AT08) to chromosome 19q13.4-qter. A particularly compelling candidate gene, PRKCG, encodes protein kinase C gamma (PKC gamma), a member of a family of serine/threonine kinases. The entire coding region of PRKCG was sequenced in an affected member of family AT08 and in a group of 39 unrelated patients with ataxia not attributable to trinucleotide expansions. Three different nonconservative missense mutations in highly conserved residues in C1, the cysteine-rich region of the protein, were found in family AT08, another familial case, and a sporadic case. The mutations cosegregated with disease in both families. Structural modeling predicts that two of these amino acid substitutions would severely abrogate the zinc-binding or phorbol ester-binding capabilities of the protein. Immunohistochemical studies on cerebellar tissue from an affected member of family AT08 demonstrated reduced staining for both PKC gamma and ataxin 1 in Purkinje cells, whereas staining for calbindin was preserved. These results strongly support a new mechanism for neuronal cell dysfunction and death in hereditary ataxias and suggest that there may be a common pathway for PKC gamma-related and polyglutamine-related neurodegeneration.
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PMID:Missense mutations in the regulatory domain of PKC gamma: a new mechanism for dominant nonepisodic cerebellar ataxia. 1264 68

A spontaneous autosomal recessive mutation was identified in the Sprague-Dawley rat strain with an early onset sensory neuropathy. The main clinical features of the mutation (mutilated foot, mf ), detectable shortly after birth, include ataxia, insensitivity to pain and foot ulceration. The pathological features include a severe reduction in the number of sensory ganglia and fibres. This mutant is therefore an excellent model for human hereditary sensory neuropathies. Here, we demonstrate that the mf locus maps to the distal end of rat chromosome 14, a region syntenic to human 2p13-p16 and proximal mouse 11. Sequence analysis of four candidate genes in this interval revealed a 1349G>A mutation in the chaperonin (delta) subunit 4 (Cct4) gene associated with the mf mutant. This change resulted in the substitution of a highly conserved cysteine for tyrosine at amino acid 450. Although we did not identify a mutation in the human CCT4 gene in a set of HSN patients, this result clearly demonstrates the pathological consequences of a defect in Cct4, a subunit of CCT (cytosolic chaperonin-containing t-complex peptide-1), involved in folding tubulin, actin and other cytosolic proteins. This is the first report of a mutation in a molecular chaperonin causing a hereditary neuropathy and raises the possibility that mis-folding proteins may be a cause of this group of neuropathies.
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PMID:Hereditary sensory neuropathy is caused by a mutation in the delta subunit of the cytosolic chaperonin-containing t-complex peptide-1 (Cct4 ) gene. 1287 11

The inherited epilepsy Unverricht-Lundborg disease (EPM1) is caused by loss-of-function mutations in the cysteine protease inhibitor, cystatin B. Because cystatin B inhibits a class of lysosomal cysteine proteases called cathepsins, we hypothesized that increased proteolysis by one or more of these cathepsins is likely to be responsible for the seizure, ataxia, and neuronal apoptosis phenotypes characteristic of EPM1. To test this hypothesis and to identify which cysteine cathepsins contribute to EPM1, we have genetically removed three candidate cathepsins from cystatin B-deficient mice and tested for rescue of their EPM1 phenotypes. Whereas removal of cathepsins L or S from cystatin B-deficient mice did not ameliorate any aspect of the EPM1 phenotype, removal of cathepsin B resulted in a 36-89% reduction in the amount of cerebellar granule cell apoptosis depending on mouse age. The incidence of an incompletely penetrant eye phenotype was also reduced upon removal of cathepsin B. Because the apoptosis and eye phenotypes were not abolished completely and the ataxia and seizure phenotypes experienced by cystatin B-deficient animals were not diminished, this suggests that another molecule besides cathepsin B is also responsible for the pathogenesis, or that another molecule can partially compensate for cathepsin B function. These findings establish cathepsin B as a contributor to the apoptotic phenotype of cystatin B-deficient mice and humans with EPM1. They also suggest that the identification of cathepsin B substrates may further reveal the molecular basis for EPM1.
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PMID:Cathepsin B but not cathepsins L or S contributes to the pathogenesis of Unverricht-Lundborg progressive myoclonus epilepsy (EPM1). 1291 16


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