Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0020505 (hyperphagia)
 6,116 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a complex multisystem genetic disorder characterized by hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction. The main clinical features include neonatal hypotonia, distinctive facial features, overall developmental delay, and poor growth in infancy, followed by overeating with severe obesity, short stature, and hypogonadism later in development. This paper reviews recent updates regarding the genetic aspects of this disorder. Three mechanisms (paternal deletion, maternal disomy, and deficient imprinting) are recognized. Maternal disomy can arise because of 4 possible mechanisms: trisomy rescue (TR), gamete complementation (GC), monosomy rescue (MR), and postfertilization mitotic nondisjunction (Mit). Recently, TR/GC caused by nondisjunction at maternal meiosis 1 has been identified increasingly, as a result of advanced maternal childbearing age in Korea. We verified that the d3 allele increases the responsiveness of the growth hormone (GH) receptor to endogenous GH. This paper also provides an overview of endocrine dysfunctions in children with PWS, including GH deficiency, obesity, sexual development, hypothyroidism, and adrenal insufficiency, as well as the effects of GH treatment. GH treatment coupled with a strictly controlled diet during early childhood may help to reduce obesity, improve neurodevelopment, and increase muscle mass. A more active approach to correct these hormone deficiencies would benefit patients with PWS.
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PMID:Endocrine problems in children with Prader-Willi syndrome: special review on associated genetic aspects and early growth hormone treatment. 2284 16

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is caused by a deficiency of imprinted genes in the 15q11-q13 region and is characterized by prenatal onset of hypotonia, poor feeding, childhood-onset obesity, hyperphagia, short stature, facial dysmorphism, intellectual disability, and behavioral problems. We studied perinatal factors in a cohort of 64 people with PWS resulting from paternal deletion of 15q11-q13 and maternal uniparental disomy (UPD) for chromosome 15. We recruited 34 individuals with deletion and 30 with UPD. We compared the frequency of multiple prenatal and neonatal factors with the general population as well as between the two genetic subtypes. Of the 64 individuals with PWS, fetal movements were decreased in 82.8%, 31.7% were born prematurely, 42.1% by Cesarean section, and 35.9% required oxytocin induction. Apgar scores were low in 34.6%, 96.8% had feeding difficulty, 50% needed tube feeding, and 6.2% subsequently had gastrostomy tube placement. On comparing findings in the deletion versus the UPD groups, we did not find many significant differences. We, however, found a higher maternal age, and also later age at diagnosis in the UPD versus the deletion group. PWS subjects have higher rates of perinatal complications, especially Cesarean section rate, hypotonia, and low Apgar scores compared to the general population. We did not find many differences between the genetic subtypes, except for later age of diagnosis of the UPD 15 group suggesting a milder phenotype. We also found that the mothers in the UPD were older, supporting the hypothesis that UPD results from nondisjunction associated trisomy rescue.
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PMID:Comparison of perinatal factors in deletion versus uniparental disomy in Prader-Willi syndrome. 2968 Nov 3