Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0013362 (dysarthria)
 3,768 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is an autosomal dominant progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by ataxia, dysarthria, ophthalmoparesis, and variable degrees of amyotrophy and neuropathy. Symptoms usually develop in the third or fourth decade but anticipation has been noted in juvenile onset cases. Neuropathologic findings include severe neuronal loss in the cerebellum and brainstem as well as degeneration of spinocerebellar tracts. The SCA1 gene which maps to the short arm of human chromosome 6 was identified using a positional cloning approach. The disease causing mutation is an expansion of a CAG trinucleotide repeat which lies within the coding region of a novel protein, ataxin-1, and encodes a polyglutamine tract. The number of CAG repeats varies from 6-39 repeats on normal alleles and 40-81 repeats on SCA1 alleles. The repeat has a perfect CAG configuration on expanded alleles whereas it is interrupted by 1-3 CAT units on normal alleles. Both wild type and expanded alleles are transcribed, ruling out impairment of transcriptional efficiency in SCA1. A pathogenetic model is proposed based on the findings in SCA1 and other neurodegenerative diseases caused by expansion of polyglutamine tracts. The expanded polyglutamine tract in ataxin-1 may lead to neurodegeneration through a gain of function mechanism involving aberrant interactions with other molecules in the involved neurons.
 ...
PMID:Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. 761 95

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is a dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by ataxia, dysarthria and progressive bulbar dysfunction. The SCA 1 gene which maps to the short arm of chromosome 6 has been isolated using a positional cloning approach. The SCA1 transcript is 10660 bases and encodes a novel protein, ataxin-1, with a predicted molecular weight of 87 kDa. Expansion of a CAG repeat localized near the amino terminus of ataxin-1 has been found to be the mutational mechanism in SCA1. This CAG repeat is highly polymorphic with normal alleles containing 6-39 repeats. Individuals affected with SCA1 have one normal allele and one expanded allele containing 40-81 repeats. The size of the repeat correlates inversely with the age of onset of symptoms and the severity of disease. The repeat is a continuous CAG repeat tract on SCA1 chromosomes whereas in > or = 98% of normal alleles one or more CAT interruptions break the CAG repeat tracts into two tracts containing less than 18 repeats each. This suggests that loss of CAT interruptions within the SCA1 CAG repeat on normal chromosomes leads to triplet instability.
 ...
PMID:Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. 762 Jan 19

A 50-year-old Japanese man showed slowly progressive gait disturbance and dysarthria. Neurological examination 5 years after onset revealed slow eye movement with nystagmus as well as limb and truncal ataxia. Magnetic resonance imaging showed atrophy of the cerebellum and brainstem. Because genetic examination revealed CAG repeat expansion of the ataxin-1 gene, the patient was diagnosed with spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. Ten years after onset, he showed psychiatric symptoms with cognitive impairment, and antipsychotic drugs were administered. As psychiatric symptoms gradually worsened, particularly with regard to resisting nursing care and shouting, the doses of the drugs were increased. Although the clinicopathologic findings were generally identical to previously reported spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 cases with the exception of the conspicuous psychiatric symptoms, there are two notable immunohistochemical findings. Firstly, numerous anti-expanded polyglutamine antibody-immunopositive neuronal inclusions were extensively observed, including in the cerebral cortex and limbic system, but not in the Purkinje cells. Secondly, anti-fused in sarcoma antibody-immunopositive intranuclear inclusions were extensively observed. We posit that the anti-expanded polyglutamine antibody-immunopositive neuronal inclusions and possibly the anti-fused in sarcoma antibody-immunopositive inclusions, particularly those in the neocortex and limbic system, may correspond to the psychiatric symptoms and cognitive impairment that were observed in the patient.
...
PMID:Presenile onset of spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 presenting with conspicuous psychiatric symptoms and widespread anti-expanded polyglutamine antibody- and fused in sarcoma antibody-immunopositive pathology. 2592 43

Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are a genetically heterogeneous group of cerebellar degenerative disorders, characterized by progressive gait unsteadiness, hand incoordination, and dysarthria. Ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is caused by the expansion of a CAG trinucleotide repeat in the SCA1 gene resulting in the atypical extension of a polyglutamine (polyQ) tract within the ataxin-1 protein. Our main objective was to investigate the mitochondrial oxidative metabolism in the cerebellum of transgenic SCA1 mice. SCA1 transgenic mice develop clinical features in the early life stages (around 5 weeks of age) presenting pathological cerebellar signs with concomitant progressive Purkinje neuron atrophy and relatively little cell loss; this evidence suggests that the SCA1 phenotype is not the result of cell death per se, but a possible effect of cellular dysfunction that occurs before neuronal demise. We studied the mitochondrial oxidative metabolism in cerebellar cells from both homozygous and heterozygous transgenic SCA1 mice, aged 2 and 6 months. Histochemical examination showed a cytochrome-c-oxidase (COX) deficiency in the Purkinje cells (PCs) of both heterozygous and homozygous mice, the oxidative defect being more prominent in older mice, in which the percentage of COX-deficient PC was up to 30%. Using a laser-microdissector, we evaluated the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content on selectively isolated COX-competent and COX-deficient PC by quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction and we found mtDNA depletion in those with oxidative dysfunction. In conclusion, the selective oxidative metabolism defect observed in neuronal PC expressing mutant ataxin occurs as early as 8 weeks of age thus representing an early step in the PC degeneration process in SCA1 disease.
 ...
PMID:Purkinje cell COX deficiency and mtDNA depletion in an animal model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. 3011 22