Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027066 (myoclonus)
 4,275 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The clinical features in 2 second cousins with neuronopathic Gaucher disease include slowly progressive ataxia, spasticity, myoclonus, and seizures with relative preservation of intellectual function. Organomegaly was noted only in Patient 1. Both patients had diffuse slowing with paroxysmal features in electroencephalograms and a deficiency of beta-glucosidase activity in leukocytes and skin fibroblast cultures. The parents of Patient 1 and the related father of Patient 2 had levels of beta-glucosidase activity consistent with the carrier state for Gaucher disease. The value of beta-glucosidase activity in the mother of Patient 2 suggests a different mutation, the result being a defective enzyme component not detectable by measuring total activity.
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PMID:Clinical variation in 2 related children with neuronopathic Gaucher disease. 9 23

Sphingolipidoses are an heterogeneous group of inherited disorders of lipid metabolism affecting primarily the central nervous system. These disorders occur chiefly in the pediatric population, and the degenerative nature of the disease processes is generally characterized by diffuse and progressive involvement of neurones (gray matter) with psychomotor retardation and myoclonus or of fiber tracts (white matter) with weakness and spasticity. Biochemical research has identified the defects in the sphingolipidoses to specific lysosomal enzymes. For example, Niemann-Pick disease lacks sphingomyelinase; Krabbe's disease lacks galactocerebrosidase; Gaucher's disease lacks beta-D-glucosidase; metachromatic leukodystrophy lacks sulfatase; Tay-Sachs disease lacks hexosaminidase A; and generalized gangliosidosis lacks beta-galactosidase. Although there are no currently available modes of rendering corrective therapy in these disorders, a definitive diagnosis is possible both antepartum as well as postpartum. This information provides a sound and accurate basis for genetic counseling.
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PMID:Sphingolipidoses. 555 2

Autopsy samples were obtained from a 12.5-year-old girl who died with a neurologic disorder consisting of myoclonus, myoclonic epilepsy, spasticity, strabismus, and mild mental retardation but no hepatosplenomegaly. Studies in leukocytes, cultured skin fibroblasts, brain, liver, and spleen of this patient revealed glucosylceramide beta-glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.45, glucocerebrosidase) activity about 10% of controls, and well in the range found in samples from Gaucher disease patients. Extraction of the lipids from liver and spleen with chloroform-methanol (2:1) did not show accumulation of glucosylceramide or other lipid. Examination of the lipids in brain by high performance liquid chromatography revealed the presence of glucosylceramide, which is not found in brain samples from controls. Pathologic examination of the liver and spleen revealed no evidence of Gaucher disease. The brain showed many degenerative lesions and loss of neurons. There was no complementation of glucocerebrosidase activity when the cells from this patient were hybridized with cells from patients with Type 1 or Type 2 Gaucher disease. The reason for the lack of glucosylceramide storage in the liver and spleen has not been determined.
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PMID:Biochemical studies in a patient with subacute neuropathic Gaucher disease without visceral glucosylceramide storage. 685 96

An infant presented with multifocal myoclonus and cyanotic hypoxemia immediately after birth, and severe feeding problems, a protein-losing enteropathy, massive ascites and grand-mal epilepsy marked his rapid downhill course, with death at 17 weeks. At 2 weeks, brain MRI revealed grey matter heterotopias in the parieto-occipital regions suggestive of a cortical morphogenetic disorder. In cultured skin fibroblasts, lipid storage and reduced activities of ceramidase, galactosylceramide beta-galactosidase and glucosylceramide beta-glucosidase were evident. Autopsy disclosed generalised lysosomal lipid storage with macrophages and adrenal cortex prominently affected. The pattern of stored lipids in cultured fibroblasts and in dewaxed spleen tissue blocks was compatible with a diagnosis of prosaposin (pSap) deficiency (pSap-d). Neuropathologically, there was a pronounced generalised neurolysosomal storage combined with a severe depletion of cortical neurons and extreme paucity of myelin and oligodendroglia. This pathology, in particular the massive neuronal loss, differed from that in other neurolipidoses and could be explained by the reduced hydrolysis of multiple sphingolipids and the loss of pSap's neurotrophic function. The absence of immunostainable saposins on tissue sections and the presence of a homozygous c.1 A > T mutation in the prosaposin gene confirmed the diagnosis. PSap-d may be an underdiagnosed condition in infants with severe neurological and dystrophic signs starting immediately after birth.
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PMID:Prosaposin deficiency -- a rarely diagnosed, rapidly progressing, neonatal neurovisceral lipid storage disease. Report of a further patient. 1594 2