Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0162671 (MELAS)
 587 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Two infants who had clinical and radiographic findings consistent with Leigh syndrome were found to have deficiency of complex I (reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide--coenzyme Q reductase) activity. Significant abnormalities were found on computed tomographic scans and magnetic resonance images of the brain. Lactate and pyruvate concentrations in blood and cerebrospinal fluid were elevated, and muscle biopsy specimens showed abnormal mitochondria. These data indicate that Leigh syndrome, as well as MELAS syndrome (mitochondrial encephalopathy, myopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes) may result from complex I deficiency.
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PMID:Complex I (reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide-coenzyme Q reductase) deficiency in two patients with probable Leigh syndrome. 210 30

The pathophysiological significance of the mitochondrial microangiopathy in MELAS (mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and strokelike episodes) syndrome was evaluated in an autopsy study of a nearly 13-year-old girl who had suffered from multiple infarctlike lesions in the brain, a mitochondrial myopathy-cardiomyopathy, and a generalized mitochondrial microangiopathy. Cytochemically, defects of cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV) were visualized by light and electron microscopy in the skeletal and heart muscle and in the altered vessels, as well as in single bile duct cells, with the activity of the hepatocytes being diffusely reduced, whereas in the brain, the cytochemical activity was only slightly diminished. Biochemical studies revealed a 50% reduction of both NADH (the reduced from of nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide) dehydrogenase (complex I) and complex IV in the skeletal muscle. In the brain, complex I was diminished to 20%, whereas complex IV was only slightly below the low-normal range. Immunohistochemical studies with the use of subunit-specific antiserum samples against cytochrome c oxidase showed a varying protein profile, with loss of both mitochondrially and nuclearly derived subunits being most pronounced in the heart muscle and lesser in the skeletal muscle. In the brain, liver, bile ducts, and especially the vessels, no loss of enzyme protein content was observed. The results illustrate heterogeneous tissue expression of respiratory chain defects in MELAS syndrome and indicate that vascular cytochrome c oxidase deficiency may be involved in the cerebral manifestation of the disease, whereas in other organs like the heart, a similar pathogenetic importance of the microangiopathy cannot be verified.
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PMID:Generalized mitochondrial microangiopathy and vascular cytochrome c oxidase deficiency. Occurrence in a case of MELAS syndrome with mitochondrial cardiomyopathy-myopathy and combined complex I/IV deficiency. 838 Dec 71

Decreased activity of complex I (NAD:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) is the most frequent biochemical finding associated with mutation at the base pair 3243 of the mitochondrial DNA. The mutation has been previously shown to lead to a defective translation. We hypothesized that due to an imperfect assembly of complex I subunits the substrate affinity of this enzyme may be lowered and this may be counteracted by increasing the mitochondrial NAD+NADH concentration. Therefore, we studied the effect and mechanism of action of nicotinamide treatment in a MELAS patient with the base pair 3243 mutation. Nicotinamide treatment was initiated after his first stroke-like episode. The blood NAD concentration (representing the intracellular concentration in erythrocytes) increased linearly being 24-fold at 6 weeks of treatment. Blood lactate and pyruvate concentration decreased by 50% within three days and 24 h urine lactate content within 2 weeks and we observed a clinical improvement together with a decrease in the lesion volume in magnetic resonance imaging within the first month. The cellular NAD increase upon nicotinamide administration was probably universal, because it occurred in a time and dose-dependent manner in cultured fibroblasts from both the patient and the controls. Alleviation of the lactate accumulation during the nicotinamide treatment suggests that an increase in the cellular NAD+NADH concentration leads to enhancement of the oxidation of reducing equivalents. However, the Km of complex I for NADH in skeletal muscle from the patient was similar to that of controls. This may indicate that physiologically mitochondrial complex I operates at non-saturating substrate concentration, and this may explain the effect of nicotinamide treatment.
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PMID:Increase of blood NAD+ and attenuation of lactacidemia during nicotinamide treatment of a patient with the MELAS syndrome. 859 19

The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) codes for essential hydrophobic components of the system of oxidative phosphorylation. Diseases caused by mtDNA defects are manifested as variable clinical phenotypes and the symptoms represent the involvement of tissues with high energy demand. Various approaches have been taken to treat mitochondrial diseases by administration of redox compounds, enzyme activators, vitamins and coenzymes or dietary measures. The MELAS mutation at the base pair 3243 of mitochondrial DNA demolishes a transcription termination sequence located within the tRNA(Leu)[UUR] gene, resulting in synthesis of an abnormally large derivative of 16 S rRNA and defective translation. The activity of NADH:Q oxidoreductase (complex I) is often decreased and lactic acidosis is a typical clinical finding. We hypothesized that defective translation of the seven mitochondrially coded subunits (of the total 41) of complex I may alter its affinity to the NADH substrate in which case the activity decrease may be compensated for by increasing the NADH concentration. A MELAS patient was treated with oral nicotinamide for 5 months. The blood NAD content representing the NAD + NADH pool of erythrocytes rose 24 fold and the blood lactate + pyrovate concentration fell by 50%. All these metabolic alterations suggested an improvement of the function of complex I or the whole mitochondrial respiratory chain. However, the kinetic properties of the patient's complex I were similar to the reference values. A tempting explanation is that the free NADH concentration in mitochondria is normally at the level of K(m), so that the decreased activity of the respiratory chain can be compensated for by increased mitochondrial [NADH]. Another possibility would be that the substrate shuttles for transport of reducing power of cytosolic NADH into mitochondria (the malate aspartate or glycerol-3-phosphate shuttles) may be enhanced by increased total NAD + NADH. Because the malate-aspartate shuttle is actually a pump for reducing equivalents driven by the mitochondrial membrane energization, it is proposed that the exacerbations of the MELAS syndrome be partly due to a vicious circle initiated by a defect of complex I and affecting the active transport of the hydrogen from cytosolic NADH into the mitochondrion.
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PMID:Metabolic interventions against complex I deficiency in MELAS syndrome. 930 2

'Myofibrillar myopathy' defines a myopathic condition with focal myofibrillar destruction and accumulation of degraded myofibrillar elements. Despite the fact that a number of mutations in different genes as well as cytotoxic agents lead to the disease, abnormal accumulation of desmin is a typical, common feature. Pathological changes of mitochondrial morphology and function have been observed in animal models with intermediate filament pathology. Therefore, in the present study we tested for mitochondrial pathology in skeletal muscle of five patients with the pathohistological diagnosis of myofibrillar myopathy. Screening for large-scale mtDNA deletions and the frequent MERRF (myoclonic epilepsy; ragged red fibres) and MELAS (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy; lactic acidosis; stroke) point mutations was negative in all patients. Histologically, all muscle biopsies showed nonspecific abnormalities of the oxidative/mitochondrial enzyme stainings (histochemistry for reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, succinic dehydrogenase, cytochrome c oxidase), only one of them had ragged red fibres and a significant number of cytochrome c oxidase-negative fibres. Upon biochemical investigation, four of our patients showed pathologically low respiratory chain complex I activities. Only one of our patients had a pathologically low complex IV activity, while the measurements of the others were within low normal range. The single patient with pathological values for both complex I and IV was the one with the clear histological hallmarks (ragged red and cytochrome c oxidase-negative fibres) of mitochondrial pathology. She also was the only patient with clinical signs hinting at a mitochondrial disorder. Together with data from observations in desmin- and plectin-deficient mice, our results support the view that desmin intermediate filament pathology in these cases is closely linked to mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal muscle.
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PMID:Mitochondrial dysfunction in myofibrillar myopathy. 1258 39