Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0025362 (mental retardation)
 15,878 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Glutaric aciduria is a disorcer of lysine, tryptophan, and hydroxylysine metabolism characterized by intermittent metabolic acidemia, dystonia, athetosis and mental retardation. It is due to a recessively inherited deficiency of glutaryl-CoA dehydrogeanse, the enzyme(s) which catalyze the dehydrogenation of glutaryl-CoA to glutaconyl-CoA and decarboxylation of the latter to crotonyl-CoA. Abnormal quantities of glutaric, beta-hydroxyglutaric, and glutaconic acids are found in the urine of these patients. The nature of the movement disorder prompted study of the effects of the abnormally excreted metabolites on brain glutamate decarboxylase, an enzyme implicated in the pathogenesis of Huntington's chorea. Glutamate decarboxylase activity was examined in rat and rabbit brain acetone powders, stabilized with pyridoxal phosphate and glutathione. Glutarate, beta-hydroxyglutarate, and glutaconate were competitive inhibitors of this emzyme, Ki values being 1.3 X 10(-3) mol/l, 2.5 X 10(-4) mol/l, respectively. This inhibition may explain the neurological accompaniments of this syndrome.
 ...
PMID:Inhibition of brain glutamate decarboxylase by glutarate, glutaconate, and beta-hydroxyglutarate: explanation of the symptoms in glutaric aciduria? 124 44

Homocyst(e)ine [H(e)], the sum of homocysteine, homocystine, and the homocysteine-cysteine mixed disulfide, free and protein-bound, has been shown to be associated in retrospective case control studies, and in one prospective study, with vascular disease, including coronary artery disease (CAD), cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease. Elevated levels of homocyst(e)ine severe enough to cause homocystinuria are seen in severe nutritional deficiencies of vitamin B12, folic acid and vitamin B6. Rare genetic disorders of vitamin B12 synthesis of 5'-10'-methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase, or the pyridoxal phosphate-dependent enzyme cystathionine beta-synthase may cause severe hyperhomocyst(e)inemia and homocystinuria. The clinical manifestation of these disorders are mental retardation, neurological disorders, and widespread thromboembolic phenomena. The measurement of H(e) is currently performed using high-pressure liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Other methods, especially mass spectroscopy, are also used. Internal standards using increasing concentrations of homocystine and acetylcysteine and several external standards are used to ensure accuracy of the assay. Milder elevations of H(e) have recently been associated with vascular disease, in both men and women. The strength of this association appears to be stronger for peripheral and cerebrovascular disease than for CAD. Nevertheless, several case control studies in Europe, Canada, and the United States have shown that H(e) levels are elevated in CAD patients compared with controls, and H(e) levels are independent of the conventional cardiovascular risk factors (age, gender, lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol levels, hypertension, or cigarette smoking). One prospective study, the Physicians' Health Study, has shown that H(e) levels are slightly but significantly higher in CAD cases vs controls in a population of US physicians.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:Measurement of homocyst(e)ine in the prediction of arteriosclerosis. 762 74

We report the case of a 19-month-old boy with Pallister-Killian syndrome associated with West syndrome. The child was born at term to a healthy mother after an uneventful pregnancy. He was born by cesarean section because of fetal macrosomia. He was observed to have nystagmus, craniofacial dysmorphism, and mental retardation. Intractable epileptic spasms developed 17 months after birth, and electroencephalography revealed a modified hypsarrhythmia. The seizures were uncontrollable with sodium valproate monotherapy. At the age of 19 months, the child was diagnosed with Pallister-Killian syndrome of mosaic tetrasomy 12p by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Combination treatment with high-dose pyridoxal phosphate and sodium valproate eliminated seizures and improved the electroencephalographic abnormalities. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of Pallister-Killian syndrome associated with West syndrome.
 ...
PMID:A case of Pallister-Killian syndrome associated with West syndrome. 1776 15

Pyridoxal phosphate and pyridoxamine phosphate, the catalytically active forms of vitamin B(6), influence brain function by participating at stages in metabolism of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, other coenzymes and hormones. Vitamin B(6) participates in the metabolism of amino acids in the form of decarboxylation, transamination, deamination, racemization and desulfhydration reactions. The crucial roles that these coenzymes play in the maintenance of functional integrity of the brain become evident when one realizes that some compounds implicated as neurotransmitters are synthesized and/or metabolized by the aid of the vitamin B(6)-dependent enzymatic reactions. These include dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, tyramine, tryptamine, taurine, histamine, gamma aminobutyric acid, and even acetylcholine indirectly. In recent years, the above-mentioned biogenic amines have become of considerable interest to neurobiologists who are investigating the etiology and the pathological manifestations of many disorders of the central nervous system such as Parkinsonism, Huntington's chorea, minimal brain disfunction, schizophrenia, depression, sleep disorders and seizure disorders. Vitamin B(6) deficiency in these cases is characterized by anemia, growth retardation and alteration in neuronal function, including neuropathies, hyperirritability, hyperexcitability and convulsions. The importance of vitamin B(6) in the study of brain function assumes still greater significance when one considers the effects of nutritional deficiencies on growth and development of the brain and mental processes and in the involvement of vitamin B(6) in some inborn errors of metabolism which result in mental retardation. Vitamin B(6) deficiency results in a lowered concentration of Coenzyme A in blood, in reduced absorption and storage of vitamin B(12), and in increased excretion of vitamin C. Furthermore, vitamin B(6) acts synergistically with vitamin E to control metabolism of unsaturated fats, with vitamin C in tyrosine metabolism and with niacin in its action and participates in niacin synthesis. In addition, vitamin B(6) deficiency results in insufficiency of insulin and in alteration of the functions of adrenal and pituitary glands, since it is involved in the synthesis of growth hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, aldosterone, glucagon, cortisol, estradiol, testosterone and epinephrine. It is hoped that by understanding the factors that regulate the synthesis, binding, storage and degradation of pyridoxal phosphate in the brain, a better insight into the role of vitamin B(6) in neurobiology may be gained.
 ...
PMID:Regulation and function of pyridoxal phosphate in CNS. 1964 63