Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0039730 (thalassemia)
 10,305 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In 1989 we are continuing to move gene diagnosis over to the direct detection mode. We have sickle cell anemia, alpha-thalassemia, beta-thalassemia, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Becker muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis moved to direct detection with hemophilia B and alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency soon to be there. For indirect detection, we still have hemophilia A, and a comment on the genetics of hemophilia A is important. Remember that sickle cell anemia is caused by one mutation, while beta-thalassemia and cystic fibrosis have a finite number of alleles. Duchenne muscular dystrophy results from a different mutation for every affected individual, but most of these are deletions and can be directly detected. Hemophilia A is another X-linked disorder with almost every affected individual having a different mutation. That means that there probably are 100 ways to get beta-thalassemia and about 10,000 ways to get hemophilia A, so we need some really good novel techniques to detect these directly, and we are working hard on such techniques. I would not be surprised if hemophilia A moved into the direct detection category in the next year or so. We need to find the Huntington disease gene, and then it will move into the direct detection column. Neurofibromatosis is still in the indirect detection group but also may move very soon. Polycystic kidney disease is also still in the indirect detection column. This summarizes where prenatal and presymptomatic gene diagnosis stands in late 1989.
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PMID:Current status of prenatal diagnosis by DNA analysis. 209 48

The presence of maternal cells in fetal samples constitutes a serious potential source for prenatal misdiagnosis. Here we present our approach for detecting maternal cell contamination (MCC) at prenatal diagnosis for eight monogenic disorders (autosomal recessive: beta-thalassaemia, sickle-cell anaemia, cystic fibrosis, prelingual deafness; autosomal dominant: achondroplasia, Huntington disease, myotonic dystrophy, neurofibromatosis type I; X-linked: spinobulbar muscular atrophy). Our aim was to apply a simple and low-cost approach, which would easily and accurately provide information on the fetal tissue MCC status. MCC testing was applied to cases of recessive inheritance where the primary mutation screening of the fetus revealed the presence of the maternal mutation, to cases concerning dominant inheritance and to cases of multiple gestation. The potential presence of maternal cells was determined by the amplification of the 3'-HVR/APO B, D1S80, THO1 and VNTRI of vWf polymorphic loci, which have previously demonstrated high heterozygosity in Caucasians. Among 135 prenatal diagnoses, 44 finally needed to be tested for MCC (32.6%). MCC was detected in four cases, where DNA was isolated directly from chorionic villi samples (CVS), and in one case with DNA isolated directly from amniotic fluid (AF). In almost 90% of cases a simple test of one polymorphic locus provided sufficient information about MCC. The choice of the appropriate locus is therefore essential, while the simultaneous screening of both parents provides the means for distinguishing non-informative sites about MCC.
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PMID:A simple and effective approach for detecting maternal cell contamination in molecular prenatal diagnosis. 1200 Dec 1

Cognitive disorders in children have traditionally been described in terms of clinical phenotypes or syndromes, chromosomal lesions, metabolic disorders, or neuropathology. Relatively little is known about how these disorders affect the chemical reactions involved in learning and memory. Experiments in fruit flies, snails, and mice have revealed some highly conserved pathways that are involved in learning, memory, and synaptic plasticity, which is the primary substrate for memory storage. These can be divided into short-term memory storage through local changes in synapses, and long-term storage mediated by activation of transcription to translate new proteins that modify synaptic function. This review summarizes evidence that disruptions in these pathways are involved in human cognitive disorders, including neurofibromatosis type I, Coffin-Lowry syndrome, Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, Rett syndrome, tuberous sclerosis-2, Down syndrome, X-linked alpha-thalassemia/mental retardation, cretinism, Huntington disease, and lead poisoning.
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PMID:Learning, memory, and transcription factors. 1259 82

A previous study described the establishment of human embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines from different sources of embryonic material, including morula, whole blastocyst and isolated inner cell mass. Using these methods, a repository of ESC lines has been established with different genetic abnormalities, which provides an unlimited source of disease cells in culture for undertaking research on the primary disturbances of the cellular processes in the genetically abnormal cells. ESC lines with genetic disorders were derived from the mutant embryos detected and avoided from transfer in the ongoing practice of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). The current repository contains 18 ESC lines with genetic disorders, including adrenoleukodystrophy, Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy, Fanconi anaemia, complementation group A, fragile-X syndrome, Huntington disease (three lines), Marfan syndrome, myotonic dystrophy (two lines), neurofibromatosis type I (five lines) and thalassaemia (two lines). These ESC lines are presently used for research purposes and may be available on request.
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PMID:Human embryonic stem cell lines with genetic disorders. 1570 4

We retrospectively reviewed the databases of seven studies on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by the Associazione Italiana Ematologia Oncologia Pediatrica (AIEOP) to identify patients with associated genetic disease, other than Down's syndrome. Forty-two patients were reported to have associated genetic conditions that included beta-thalassemia (n=10), ataxia-telangiectasia (n=5), neurofibromatosis (n=3), Sotos syndrome (n=2) and other individual conditions. Patients with ataxia-telangiectasia, all with T-cell ALL, had a higher frequency of adverse events.
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PMID:Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children with associated genetic conditions other than Down's syndrome. The AIEOP experience. 1643 85