Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0036572 (seizures)
 80,221 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Recurrent seizures, commonly known as epilepsies, occur in 1.7% of the general population by age 40. The factors that initiate or underlie seizures are not well understood, but trauma, infectious disease and genetics have been implicated. An understanding of the molecular basis of seizures would shed light on the basic mechanisms of neuronal homeostasis and allow new therapeutic strategies to be explored. Here, we report the mapping of an epilepsy gene to a specific chromosomal region, on the basis of cosegregation of two closely-linked DNA markers with a form of epilepsy known as benign familial neonatal convulsions (BFNC2, 12120 in ref. 3). The linked markers confirm the genetic basis and autosomal dominant inheritance of this trait, and localize the gene causing BFNC in this family to the long arm of chromosome 20. This regional placement is the first step towards the isolation of a gene involved in neuronal activity in the human brain.
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PMID:Benign familial neonatal convulsions linked to genetic markers on chromosome 20. 291 97

Major advances in the identification of genetic loci and genes that predispose individuals to epilepsy have been made in the last several years. Two main themes for human, idiopathic epilepsies are emerging; genetic, or locus heterogeneity is not uncommon, and the discovery that epilepsy susceptibility genes are voltage-gated and ligand-gated ion channels. Knowledge that more than a single genetic locus is responsible for a single seizure type, along with a wide spectrum of disease mutations among families will complicate clinical, diagnostic issues. Disease gene identification, such as the two potassium ion channels (KCNQ2 and KCNQ3) for the two forms of benign familial neonatal seizures (BFNC) and the alpha4 subunit of the nicotinic receptor for autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy (ADNFLE), however, should yield significant advances in drug discoveries. Understanding the primary defect in inherited epilepsies provides for specific protein and pathway targets for potential drug intervention.
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PMID:Susceptibility genes in human epilepsy. 1071 62

Benign familial neonatal convulsions (BFNC, also named benign familial neonatal seizures, BFNS) is a rare autosomal dominant inherited epilepsy syndrome with clinical and genetic heterogeneity. Two voltage-gated potassium channel subunit genes, KCNQ2 and KCNQ3, have been identified to cause BFNC1 and BFNC2, respectively. To date, only three mutations of KCNQ3, all located within exon 5, have been reported. By limited linkage analysis and mutation analysis of KCNQ3 in a Chinese family with BFNC, we identified a novel missense mutation of KCNQ3, c.988C>T located within exon 6. c.988C>T led to the substitution Cys for Arg in amino acid position 330 (p.R330C) in KCNQ3 potassium channel, which possibly impaired the neuronal M-current and altered neuronal excitability. Seizures of all BFNC patients started from day 2 to 3 after birth and remitted during 1 month, and no recurrence was found. One family member who displayed fever-associated seizures for two times at age 5 years and was diagnosed as febrile seizures, however, did not carry this mutation, which suggests that febrile seizures and BFNC have different pathogenesis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of KCNQ3 mutation in Chinese family with BFNC.
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PMID:A novel mutation of KCNQ3 gene in a Chinese family with benign familial neonatal convulsions. 1824 25