Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0026850 (muscular dystrophy)
 5,870 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

At least 50 disease-causing mutations in the skeletal muscle voltage-gated chloride channel gene (CLCN1), almost all of which originate from Caucasian families, have been identified. We investigated a Japanese family with Thomsen's myotonia congenita that included 16 affected individuals (8 men and 8 women) through five generations. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) screening of 11 members showed an aberrant conformer in exon 13 of CLCN1 complementary DNA (cDNA) in 8 affected and 1 unaffected members. By sequence analysis, we identified a C-to-A transition at nucleotide position 1438, resulting in a substitution of proline for threonine at amino acid position 480 (P480T), the same position of the original mutation (P480L) in Thomsen's disease. The P480T mutation was novel and absent in 100 normal controls. Seven of the 8 affected individuals were heterozygous; another, from affected parents, was homozygous. Clinically, myotonia in the homozygous patient was more severe than that in heterozygous patients, probably due to the gene dosage effect. On a long-train nerve-stimulation test at a rate of 3 Hz, M-wave responses in the homozygous patient showed marked decrement followed by recovery. In contrast, the heterozygous patients showed just a slight decrement or no changes, and none of 2 patients with myotonic muscular dystrophy or 2 normal controls revealed any decrement. Thus, the long-train nerve-stimulation test at a low stimulus frequency may be a useful tool to assess the disease-severity/genotype relationship in myotonia congenita.
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PMID:A novel CLCN1 mutation: P480T in a Japanese family with Thomsen's myotonia congenita. 1135 20

Astrocytes in the cerebrum and medulla oblongata of cases of Fukuyama type congenital muscular dystrophy were examined by immunohistochemistry of oxidative modification products and free-radical scavenging enzymes because abnormal glia limitans formed by astrocytic end feet is considered to be involved in the genesis of brain lesions of Fukuywama type congenital muscular dystrophy. The study was performed on two fetal cases of Fukuyama type congenital muscular dystrophy of 18 and 20 weeks' gestation and seven patients with Fukuyama type congenital muscular dystrophy ranging in age from 2 to 27 years. Eight age-matched control cases were used. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to ascertain the gene phenotype of two child cases, in which prenatal gene analysis was not performed. Astrocytes, especially layer I astrocytes, of postnatal cases of Fukuyama type congenital muscular dystrophy were weakly positivefor Nepsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine and argpyrimidine, suggesting that they were sensitive to oxidative stress, and the accumulation may be related to the abnormal glia limitans. Secondary increase of manganese (Mn) superoxide dismutase against the increase of free radicals was considered in patients with Fukuyama type congenital muscular dystrophy more than 14 years old considered to be homozygous for founder haplotype: homozygosity was suggested by PCR in two cases. In contrast, expression of Mn superoxide dismutase was decreased in 2- and 6-year-old children with Fukuyama type congenital muscular dystrophy that were heterozygous. Moreover, accumulation of argpyrimidine was exclusively found in astrocytes of the 2-year-old child that exhibited severe brain lesions. Function of astrocytes might be impaired or immature in severe or heterozygous cases. These results may confirm that astrocytes play an important role in the etiology of the brain lesion.
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PMID:Oxidative stress in the brain of Fukuyama type congenital muscular dystrophy: immunohistochemical study on astrocytes. 1258 16

Utrophin (Utrn) is the autosomal homolog of dystrophin, the Duchene Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) locus product and of therapeutic interest, as its overexpression can compensate dystrophin's absence. Utrn is transcribed by Utrn-A and -B promoters with mRNAs differing at their 5' ends. However, previous central nervous system (CNS) studies used C-terminal antibodies recognizing both isoforms. As this distinction may impact upregulation strategies, we generated Utrn-A and -B promoter-specific antibodies, Taqman Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based absolute copy number assays, and luciferase-reporter constructs to study CNS of normal and dystrophic mdx mice. Differential expression of Utrn-A and -B was noted in microdissected and capillary-enriched fractions. At the protein level, Utrn-B was predominantly expressed in vasculature and ependymal lining, whereas Utrn-A was expressed in neurons, astrocytes, choroid plexus and pia mater. mRNA quantification demonstrated matching patterns of differential expression; however, transcription-translation mismatch was noted for Utrn-B in caudal brain regions. Utrn-A and Utrn-B proteins were significantly upregulated in olfactory bulb and cerebellum of mdx brain. Differential promoter activity, mRNA and protein expressions were studied in cultured C2C12, bEnd3, neurons and astrocytes. Promoter activity ranking for Utrn-A and -B was neurons > astrocytes > C2C12 > bEnd3 and bEnd3 > astrocytes > neurons > C2C12, respectively. Our results identify promoter usage patterns for therapeutic targeting and define promoter-specific differential distribution of Utrn isoforms in normal and dystrophic CNS.
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PMID:Differential expression of utrophin-A and -B promoters in the central nervous system (CNS) of normal and dystrophic mdx mice. 1948 9