Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0004352 (autism)
 32,579 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairment of social interaction, language, communication, and stereotyped, repetitive behavior. Genetic predisposition to autism has been demonstrated in families and twin studies. About 5-10% of autism cases are associated with chromosomal abnormalities or monogenic disorders. The identification of genes involved in the origin of autism is expected to increase our understanding of the pathogenesis. We report on the clinical, cytogenetic, and molecular findings in a boy with autism carrying a de novo translocation t(7;16)(p22.1;p11.2). The chromosome 16 breakpoint disrupts the paralogous SLC6A8 gene also called SLC6A10 or CT2. Predicted translation of exons and RT-PCR analysis reveal specific expression of the creatine transporter paralogous in testis and brain. Several studies reported on the role of X-linked creatine transporter mutations in individuals with mental retardation, with or without autism. The existence of disruption in SLC6A8 paralogous gene associated with idiopathic autism suggests that this gene may be involved in the autistic phenotype in our patient.
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PMID:The creatine transporter gene paralogous at 16p11.2 is expressed in human brain. 1850 88

Interconversion between phosphocreatine and creatine, catalyzed by creatine kinase is crucial in the supply of ATP to tissues with high energy demand. Creatine's importance has been established by its use as an ergogenic aid in sport, as well as the development of intellectual disability in patients with congenital creatine deficiency. Creatine biosynthesis is complemented by dietary creatine uptake. Intracellular transport of creatine is carried out by a creatine transporter protein (CT1/CRT/CRTR) encoded by the SLC6A8 gene. Most tissues express this gene, with highest levels detected in skeletal muscle and kidney. There are lower levels of the gene detected in colon, brain, heart, testis and prostate. The mechanism(s) by which this regulation occurs is still poorly understood. A duplicated unprocessed pseudogene of SLC6A8-SLC6A10P has been mapped to chromosome 16p11.2 (contains the entire SLC6A8 gene, plus 2293 bp of 5'flanking sequence and its entire 3'UTR). Expression of SLC6A10P has so far only been shown in human testis and brain. It is still unclear as to what is the function of SLC6A10P. In a patient with autism, a chromosomal breakpoint that intersects the 5'flanking region of SLC6A10P was identified; suggesting that SLC6A10P is a non-coding RNA involved in autism. Our aim was to investigate the presence of cis-acting factor(s) that regulate expression of the creatine transporter, as well as to determine if these factors are functionally conserved upstream of the creatine transporter pseudogene. Via gene-specific PCR, cloning and functional luciferase assays we identified a 1104 bp sequence proximal to the mRNA start site of the SLC6A8 gene with promoter activity in five cell types. The corresponding 5'flanking sequence (1050 bp) on the pseudogene also had promoter activity in all 5 cell lines. Surprisingly the pseudogene promoter was stronger than that of its parent gene in 4 of the cell lines tested. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental evidence of a pseudogene with stronger promoter activity than its parental gene.
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PMID:Cloning and characterization of the promoter regions from the parent and paralogous creatine transporter genes. 2414 41