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)

Two adult Ashkenazi Jewish siblings have had slowly progressive deterioration of gait and posture since early childhood, distal to proximal muscle atrophy, pes cavus, foot drop, spasticity, mild ataxia of limbs and trunk, dystonic features, and dysarthria. Vision and optic fundi are normal, verbal intelligence is stable, and no seizures have occurred. The sister of the patients died at 16 years of age with the same illness. Autopsy showed diffuse neuronal storage, predominating in subcortical areas, consisting of membranocytoplasmic bodies, zebra bodies, and complex lamellar structures. GM2 ganglioside was increased in her brain. Hexosaminidase A was decreased in serum and leukocytes of the living patients, and was in the range for carriers of Tay-Sachs disease in their parents. The disease found in this family represents a new, more indolent variant of GM2 gangliosidosis.
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PMID:Adult (chronic) GM2 gangliosidosis. Atypical spinocerebellar degeneration in a Jewish sibship. 17 70

A boy with mild hand tremor since age 2 1/2 was found at 4 to have cherry-red spots and mild trucal ataxia without seizures or dementia. Biochemically, he had striking hexosaminidase deficiency (serum: 4.6 percent of normal, 88.9 percent heat-labile; leukocyte: 2.2 percent of normal, 84.6 percent heat-labile; fibroblast 12.8 percent normal, 93.1 percent heat-labile). The residual hexosaminidase activity migrated electrophoretically in two bands. The major band comigrated with hexosaminidase A, the minor with hexosaminidase S. Hexosaminidase B was totally absent. The parents had partially reduced hexosaminidase with a decreased heat-stabile fraction. This disorder may result from a new mutation closely related to that causing Sandhoff-Jatzkewitz disease.
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PMID:A new juvenile hexosaminidase deficiency disease presenting as cerebellar ataxia. Clinical and biochemical studies. 56 95

An Ashkenazi Jewish brother and sister developed progressive ataxia and proximal neurogenic muscle weakness, associated with supranuclear ophthalmoplegia, in the fourth decade of life. Hexosaminidase A activity, assayed using both synthetic and natural substrates, was severely reduced in the patients' plasma, leukocytes, and skin fibroblasts. Enzyme activity in their parents was in a similar range to that seen in heterozygotes for Tay-Sachs disease. The increasing evidence for marked clinical and molecular heterogeneity in the GM2 gangliosidoses warrants their consideration in the diagnosis of multisystem degenerative neurological disorders, even if onset of symptoms is in adult life.
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PMID:Adult onset supranuclear ophthalmoplegia, cerebellar ataxia, and neurogenic proximal muscle weakness in a brother and sister: another hexosaminidase A deficiency syndrome. 295 62

We studied three patients from two unrelated families with adult hexosaminidase A deficiency. A 30-year-old, non-Jewish proband in the first family had juvenile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that evolved to mild dementia, ataxia, and axonal (neuronal) motor-sensory peripheral neuropathy. A 36-year-old Jewish proband in the second family had "pure" spinal muscular atrophy. One supposedly healthy brother of the first proband was found to have borderline IQ, mild spasticity, and ataxia but no evidence of motor neuron disease. Marked cerebellar atrophy was detected by head scans in all three patients. In both probands electromyograms were characterized by prominent, complex repetitive discharges in many muscles. Hexosaminidase A activities against the artificial substrate were similar to those reported in infantile Tay-Sachs disease; however, the hexosaminidase A level against GM2 substrates was higher than that found in infantile Tay-Sachs disease. The hexosaminidase A levels of the parents were in the heterozygous range. Motor neuron disease in our patients and in those previously described appears to be part of a multisystem degeneration of the nervous system.
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PMID:Motor neuron disease and adult hexosaminidase A deficiency in two families: evidence for multisystem degeneration. 315 34

A 3-year-old boy developed progressive neurological deterioration in his third year, characterized by dementia, ataxia, myoclonic jerks, and bilateral macular cherry-red spots. Hexosaminidase A (HEX A) was partially decreased in the patient's serum, leukocytes, and cultured skin fibroblasts. Hexosaminidase was studied in serum and leukocytes from family members. Four members of the paternal branch appeared to be carriers of classical infantile Tay-Sachs allele, HEX alpha 2, probably receiving the gene from one great-grandparent of Ashkenazi origin. In the maternal branch, no one was a carrier of classical infantile Tay-Sachs disease, but five individuals were carriers of a milder alpha-locus defect. The patient, therefore, was a genetic compound of two different alpha-locus hexosaminidase mutations. At least 21 families with late-infantile or juvenile GM2 gangliosidosis have been reported, 18 of them with alpha-locus mutations, and three with beta-locus mutations. Genetic compounds of hexosaminidase have been reported in at least seven families, five with alpha-locus mutations and two with beta-locus mutations. The compound had the phenotype of infantile Tay-Sachs disease in one family, infantile Sandhoff disease in another, and the normal phenotype in the rest.
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PMID:Alpha-locus hexosaminidase genetic compound with juvenile gangliosidosis phenotype: clinical, genetic, and biochemical studies. 677 23

Hexosaminidase deficiency diseases or GM2-gangliosidoses were originally described as infantile encephalopathies. Recently, hexosaminidase deficiencies have been found with different phenotypes, including juvenile and adult encephalopathies, cerebellar ataxias, and motor neuron diseases. Individual cases have resembled Ramsey-Hunt syndrome, olivopontocerebellar ataxia, Friedreich ataxia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Kugelberg-Welander disease, Fazio-Londe disease, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Tremor, dystonia, spastic paresis, and psychosis have been seen. Since few diagnosable causes for these system atrophies are known, these patients should be tested for hexosaminidase deficiency. These recessive disorders fit a multiple loci/multiple alleles genetic scheme, and a clinical genetic classification is presented.
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PMID:The clinical spectrum of hexosaminidase deficiency diseases. 719 92