ABSTRACT
GBA1 is one of the common risk genes of Parkinson′s disease (PD), which encodes glucocerebrosidase. It is difficult to distinguish PD patients with heterozygous variants of GBA1 ( GBA1-PD) from idiopathic Parkinson′s disease patients, but GBA1-PD tends to progress faster, be more severe, and be more likely to be associated with cognitive impairment and other non-motor symptoms. The pathological mechanism of the increased risk of PD in GBA1 heterozygous variant carriers may be related to autophagy-lysosome dysfunction and mitochondrial dysfunction. Targeted therapy for GBA1 is expected to become a new direction of precision therapy for PD. In this article, the epidemiology and clinical features of GBA1-PD, the possible pathogenesis of GBA1 variation, and the therapeutic strategies for GBA1-PD were elaborated.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: To study disease severity and response to enzyme replacement therapy in Gaucher disease. Methods: Updated data was captured from records of 37 patients (35 reported previously) with confirmed diagnosis of Gaucher disease from January 1995 through December 2011 (31, 83.8 %) and prospectively from January 2012 through June 2013 (6, 16.2 %). Severity of manifestations was determined by Gaucher disease Severity Score Index. Response to enzyme replacement therapy was assessed in terms of attainment of therapeutic goals. Results: Moderate to severe manifestations (domain score of > 2) were observed in treated patients at baseline (83%, 58%, 66% and 25% for anemia, thrombocytopenia, hepatomegaly and leucopenia, respectively and 100% for splenomegaly and elevated plasma chitotriosidase). None of the 11 patients treated with synthetic enzyme (average annual dose 23 to 53 units/kg) attained all therapeutic goals in the recommended time frame, particularly the visceral, skeletal and growth domains. Conclusions: Early onset of moderate to severe disease in Indian patients mandates early therapy with optimum doses to ensure attainment of all recommended therapeutic goals.