0000000000313254
AUTHOR
Holger Blessing
Newborn screening and disease variants predict neurological outcome in isovaleric aciduria.
Isovaleric aciduria (IVA), a metabolic disease with severe (classic IVA) or attenuated phenotype (mild IVA), is included in newborn screening (NBS) programs worldwide. The long-term clinical benefit of screened individuals, however, is still rarely investigated. A national, prospective, observational, multi-center study of individuals with confirmed IVA identified by NBS between 1998 and 2018 was conducted. Long-term clinical outcomes of 94 individuals with IVA were evaluated, representing 73.4% (for classic IVA: 92.3%) of the German NBS cohort. In classic IVA (N = 24), NBS prevented untimely death except in one individual with lethal neonatal sepsis (3.8%) but did not completely prevent si…
Interference by toxic metal ions with zinc-dependent proteins involved in maintaining genomic stability.
Metal ions are essential components of biological systems; nevertheless, even essential elements may have toxic or carcinogenic properties. Thus, besides As(III) and Cd(II), also Ni(II) and Co(II) have been shown previously to disturb different types of DNA repair systems at low, non-cytotoxic concentrations. Since some metals exert high affinities for SH groups, we investigated whether zinc finger structures in DNA-binding motifs of DNA repair proteins are potential targets for toxic metal ions. The bacterial formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase (Fpg protein) involved in base excision repair was inhibited by Cd(II), Cu(II) and Hg(II) with increasing efficiencies, whereas Co(II), As(III), Pb…
Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia with severe involvement of the aortic valve—A sibling‐controlled case study on the efficacy of lipoprotein apheresis
Background Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (hoFH) can cause severe atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in early infancy. Diagnosis and initiation of effective lipid-lowering therapy (LLT) are recommended as early as possible to prevent ASCVD-related morbidity and mortality. Methods The clinical courses of a pair of siblings with an identical hoFH genotype, who exhibited major similarities of their clinical phenotype were analyzed in a case-control fashion including the family. Results The older sibling was diagnosed with hoFH at the age of 4. Untreated LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) was 17 mmol/L (660 mg/dL). LLT including lipoprotein apheresis (LA) was initiated and has been s…