Menkes disease is a rare X-linked neurodegenerative disorder caused by defect in copper metabolism. Parenteral copper supplementation has been used as a potential disease-modifying treatment of ...Menkes disease for decades. However, recent evidence suggests its efficacy only when treatment is started within days after birth, which also has important implications related to the techniques that enable early diagnosis. We aim at proposing a guideline for prenatal and neonatal diagnosis and for disease-modifying treatment of Menkes disease, guided by a systematic review of the literature, and built in conjunction with medical experts, methodologists and patient representatives. Thirteen articles were used for our recommendations that were based on GRADE system. Reviewed evidence suggests that prenatal genetic diagnosis in families with previous diagnosis of Menkes disease is feasible; analysis of plasma catecholamine levels is accurate for neonatal diagnosis of Menkes disease; treatment with copper-histidine is effective to increase survival and reduce neurologic burden of the disease if initiated in the neonatal period; and, treatment indication should not be guided by patient's genotype. In conclusion, our guideline can contribute to standardize some aspects of the clinical care of patients with Menkes disease, especially reducing disease burden and mortality and providers' and families' anxiety.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease of the lower and upper motor neurons with sporadic or hereditary occurrence. Age of onset, pattern of motor neuron ...degeneration and disease progression vary widely among individuals with ALS. Various cellular processes may drive ALS pathomechanisms, but a monogenic direct metabolic disturbance has not been causally linked to ALS. Here we show SPTLC1 variants that result in unrestrained sphingoid base synthesis cause a monogenic form of ALS. We identified four specific, dominantly acting SPTLC1 variants in seven families manifesting as childhood-onset ALS. These variants disrupt the normal homeostatic regulation of serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT) by ORMDL proteins, resulting in unregulated SPT activity and elevated levels of canonical SPT products. Notably, this is in contrast with SPTLC1 variants that shift SPT amino acid usage from serine to alanine, result in elevated levels of deoxysphingolipids and manifest with the alternate phenotype of hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy. We custom designed small interfering RNAs that selectively target the SPTLC1 ALS allele for degradation, leave the normal allele intact and normalize sphingolipid levels in vitro. The role of primary metabolic disturbances in ALS has been elusive; this study defines excess sphingolipid biosynthesis as a fundamental metabolic mechanism for motor neuron disease.
Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSP) are characterized by progressive deterioration of axonal projections of upper motor neurons leading to abnormal locomotion. The clinical course of HSP as well as ...the definition of the best instruments to assess its progression is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the progression of functional gait in individuals with HSP and to define sensitivity to change, minimal clinically important difference (MCID), and validity of timed functional tests of gait (TFT). The study was constituted of two phases: a cross-sectional study and a prospective cohort of 18 months. Twenty-five patients (17 being SPG4), and twenty-five age- and sex-matched control individuals performed TFT. Spastic paraplegia rating scale (SPRS), ten-meter walking test (10MWT), timed up and go test (TUG), both at self-selected and maximal walking speeds, and six-minute walking test (6MWT) were performed on baseline in both groups and after 18 months of follow-up only in the HSP cohort. In the cross-sectional analysis, all TFTs performances were greatly impaired in HSP patients compared to controls. After 18 months of follow-up, TFTs did not differ significantly from baseline in the statistical analysis, with some tests showing more frequent improvement than worsening. We have provided effect size measures and MCID for the evaluated instruments. HSPs clearly compromised TFTs performances, which were valid instruments for assessing disease severity. However, TFTs and SPRS did not capture the very slow motor evolution of HSPs, reinforcing the necessity of additional biomarkers of disease progression.
The present study aimed to characterize clinical and molecular data of a large cohort of subjects with childhood-onset hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs). A multicenter historical cohort was ...performed at five centers in Brazil, in which probands and affected relatives' data from consecutive families with childhood-onset HSP (onset < 12 years-old) were reviewed from 2011 to 2020. One hundred and six individuals (83 families) with suspicion of childhood-onset HSP were evaluated, being 68 (50 families) with solved genetic diagnosis, 6 (5 families) with candidate variants in HSP-related genes and 32 (28 families) with unsolved genetic diagnosis. The most common childhood-onset subtype was SPG4, 11/50 (22%) families with solved genetic diagnosis; followed by SPG3A, 8/50 (16%). Missense pathogenic variants in SPAST were found in 54.5% of probands, favoring the association of this type of variant to childhood-onset SPG4. Survival curves to major handicap and cross-sectional Spastic Paraplegia Rating Scale progressions confirmed the slow neurological deterioration in SPG4 and SPG3A. Most common complicating features and twenty variants not previously described in HSP-related genes were reported. These results are fundamental to understand the molecular and clinical epidemiology of childhood-onset HSP, which might help on differential diagnosis, patient care and guiding future collaborative trials for these rare diseases.
Genetic epidemiology of familial ALS in Brazil Nunes Gonçalves, João Pedro; Leoni, Tauana Bernardes; Martins, Melina Pazian ...
Neurobiology of aging,
June 2021, 2021-06-00, 20210601, Letnik:
102
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Many genes associated with familial forms of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (fALS) have been identified in European and North American cohorts. However, little is known about the genetic bases of ...fALS in Latin America and Brazil, in particular. To address this question, we recruited 107 patients with fALS from 93 unrelated families from Southeastern, Southern, and Northeastern regions of the country. A 3-step diagnostic approach was used: 1) Triplet repeat primed polymerase chain reaction to search for C9orf72 expansions, then 2) fragment digestion to search for the c.166 C>T VAPB variant, and finally, 3) whole exome sequencing for those who tested negative. We identified the genetic cause for fALS in 70% of the families. VAPB and C9orf72 were the most frequent genes (30% and 22%, respectively), followed by SOD1, TARDBP, ANXA11, and FUS. Five novel variants in known ALS genes were found, including the SOD1 Val120Leu and ANXA11 Asp40Tyr, which were seen in 2 unrelated families each. In conclusion, VAPB and then C9orf72 are the genes most commonly related to fALS in Brazil.
•Mutations in VAPB and C9orf72 are the most frequent cause of fALS in Brazil.•VAPB/C9orf72 testing combined with exome sequencing had diagnostic yield of 70%.•SOD1 and TARDBP were associated with phenotypic heterogeneity in Brazilian families.•Novel ALS-related mutations were identified in SOD1, ANXA11, TARDBP, FUS and TBK1.
Diagnostic yield of genetic studies for Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth disease (CMT) is little known, with a lack of epidemiological data to build better diagnostic strategies outside the United States and ...Europe. We aimed to evaluate the performance of two molecular diagnostic strategies for patients with CMT, and to characterize epidemiological findings of these conditions in southern Brazil. We performed a single‐center cross‐sectional study, in which 94 patients (55 families) with CMT suspicion were evaluated. Overall, the diagnostic yield of the combined strategy of Multiplex‐ligation‐dependent‐probe‐amplification (MLPA) of PMP22/GJB1/MPZ and GJB1/MPZ/PMP22 Sanger sequencing was 63.6% (28/44) for index cases with demyelinating/intermediate CMT suspicion (21 CMT1A‐PMP22, 5 CMTX1‐GJB1 and 2 with probably CMT1B‐MPZ diagnosis). Five of the 11 index cases (45.4%) with axonal CMT had at least a possible diagnosis with next generation sequencing (NGS) panel of 104 inherited neuropathies‐related genes (one each with CMT1A‐PMP22, CMT2A‐MFN2, CMT2K‐GDAP1, CMT2U‐MARS, CMT2W‐HARS1). Detailed clinical, neurophysiological and molecular data of families are provided. Sequential molecular diagnosis strategies with MLPA plus target Sanger sequencing for demyelinating/intermediate CMT had high diagnostic yield, and almost half of axonal CMT families had at least a possible diagnosis with the comprehensive NGS panel. Most frequent subtypes of CMT in our region are CMT1A‐PMP22 and CMTX1‐GJB1.
The economic burden of rare diseases on health systems is still not widely measured, with the generation of accurate information about the costs with medical care for subjects with rare diseases ...being crucial when defining health policies. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is the most common form of muscular dystrophy, with new technologies recently being studied for its management. Information about the costs related to the disease in Latin America is scarce, and the objective of this study is to evaluate the annual hospital, home care and transportation costs per patient with DMD treatment in Brazil.
Data from 27 patients were included, the median annual cost per patient was R$ 17,121 (IQR R$ 6,786; 25,621). Home care expenditures accounted for 92% of the total costs, followed by hospital costs (6%) and transportation costs (2%). Medications and loss of family, and patient's productivity are among the most representative consumption items. When disease worsening due to loss of the ability to walk was incorporated to the analysis, it was shown that wheelchair users account for an incremental cost of 23% compared with non-wheelchair users.
This is an original study in Latin America to measure DMD costs using the micro-costing technique. Generating accurate information about costs is crucial to provide health managers with information that could help establish more sustainable policies when deciding upon rare diseases in emerging countries.
On examination, she was hypotensive with a blood pressure of 80/50 mm Hg; heart rate was 122 beats per min, respiratory rate was 22 breaths per min. The patient was started empirically on ...ampicillin-sulbactam therapy which was later changed to piperacillin-tazobactam, and vancomycin. 3 weeks after the initial symptoms began, she reported an intense headache and weakness in her legs, which necessitated transfer to our hospital for tertiary care, where on arrival, we found her blood pressure to be 200/110 mm Hg, pulse rate 90 beats per min, respiratory rate 20 breaths per min, axillary temperature 36·1°C and oxygen saturation 95% on room air. First identified in patients with diabetes in Taiwan in 1986, it later spread to neighbouring regions, reaching an endemic status and it is now reported globally.
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