0000000000175194
AUTHOR
Isidro Ferrer
α-Synuclein expression levels do not significantly affect proteasome function and expression in mice and stably transfected PC12 cell lines
α-Synuclein (α-syn) is a small protein of unknown function that is found aggregated in Lewy bodies, the histopathological hallmark of sporadic Parkinson disease and other synucleinopathies. Mutations in the α-syn gene and a triplication of its gene locus have been identified in early onset familial Parkinson disease. α-Syn turnover can be mediated by the proteasome pathway. A survey of published data may lead to the suggestion that overexpression of α-syn wild type, and/or their variants (A53T and A30P), may produce a decrease in proteasome activity and function, contributing to α-syn aggregation. To investigate the relationship between synuclein expression and proteasome function we have s…
In-frame deletion in the seventh immunoglobulin-like repeat of filamin C in a family with myofibrillar myopathy.
Myofibrillar myopathies (MFMs) are an expanding and increasingly recognized group of neuromuscular disorders caused by mutations in DES, CRYAB, MYOT, and ZASP. The latest gene to be associated with MFM was FLNC; a p.W2710X mutation in the 24th immunoglobulin-like repeat of filamin C was shown to be the cause of a distinct type of MFM in several German families. We studied an International cohort of 46 patients from 39 families with clinically and myopathologically confirmed MFM, in which DES, CRYAB, MYOT, and ZASP mutations have been excluded. In patients from an unrelated family a 12-nucleotide deletion (c.2997_3008del) in FLNC resulting in a predicted in-frame four-residue deletion (p.Val…
Delayed postnatal neurogenesis in the cerebral cortex of lizards
Labelled cells were consistently observed in the medial cortex of the lizard brain after i.p. injections of tritiated thymidine (5 microCi/g b. wt.), 1, 7, 18 or 28 days of survival and posterior autoradiographic evaluation. In 3 groups of specimens (postnatal, young and adult) of the species Podarcis hispanica, after one day of survival, labelled cells were located in the ependymal cell layer underlying the medial cortex. After intermediate survival times (7, 18 days), labelled cells were found in 3 zones: the ependymal layer, the inner plexiform layer and the granular layer. After one month of survival, most labelled cells were observed in the granular layer. In the granular layer, these …
A series of West European patients with severe cardiac and skeletal myopathy associated with a de novo R406W mutation in desmin.
Desminopathy is a familial or sporadic cardiac and skeletal muscular dystrophy associated with mutations in desmin. We have previously characterized a de novo desmin R406W mutation in a patient of European origin with early onset muscle weakness in the lower extremities and atrioventricular conduction block requiring a permanent pacemaker. The disease relentlessly progressed resulting in severe incapacity within 5 years after onset. We have now identified three other patients with early onset rapidly progressive cardiac and skeletal myopathy caused by this same desmin R406W mutation. The mutation was present in each studied patient, but not in their parents or other unaffected family member…