Congenital CLN8 disease of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis: a novel phenotype. / Enfermedad CLN8 congenita de lipofuscinosis neuronal ceroidea: un nuevo fenotipo.

INTRODUCTION: CLN8 disease is one of the thirteen recognized genetic types of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, a group of neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorders, most frequent in childhood. A putative 286 amino acids transmembrane CLN8 protein with unknown function is affected. Pathological variants in the CLN8 gene were associated with two different phenotypes: variant late-infantile in individuals from many countries worldwide, and epilepsy progressive with mental retardation, appearing in Finnish and Turkish subjects. CASE REPORT: The girl showed psychomotor delay and dementia since birth, tonic-clonic seizures, myoclonus, ataxia with cerebellar atrophy, and early death at 12 years old. Electron microscopy of the skin showed mixed GROD, curvilinear, fingerprint cytosomes and mitochondrial hypertrophy. Two pathological DNA variants in the CLN8 gene (exon 2 c.1A>G; p.?/ exon 3 c.792C>G; p.Asn264Lys) were found confirming a compound heterozygous genotype. CONCLUSION: This case is the Latin American index for a new congenital phenotype of the CLN8 disease. The congenital phenotype has to be added to the clinical spectrum of the CLN8 disease. The suspicion of CLN8 disease should be genetically sustained in challenging cases of a neurodegenerative syndrome with psychomotor delay since birth, speech difficulty and seizures. The course includes ataxia, cerebellar atrophy, and early death.

TITLE: Enfermedad CLN8 congenita de lipofuscinosis neuronal ceroidea: un nuevo fenotipo.Introduccion. La enfermedad CLN8 es uno de los 13 tipos geneticos reconocidos de lipofuscinosis neuronal ceroidea, un grupo de trastornos neurodegenerativos de acumulacion lisosomica, los mas frecuentes en la infancia. La causan mutaciones en la proteina transmembrana CLN8 de 286 aminoacidos, cuya funcion se desconoce. Las variantes patologicas en el gen CLN8 se asociaron con dos fenotipos diferentes: la variante infantil tardia en individuos de diversos paises alrededor del mundo, y la epilepsia progresiva con retraso mental, que aparece en pacientes finlandeses y turcos. Caso clinico. Niña que mostro retraso psicomotor y demencia desde el nacimiento, convulsiones tonicoclonicas, mioclonia, ataxia con atrofia cerebelosa y muerte temprana a los 12 años. La microscopia electronica de la piel mostro una mezcla de citosomas con patrones de depositos osmiofilicos granulares, curvilineos y de «huella digital¼, y mitocondrias hipertrofiadas. Se encontraron dos variantes patologicas de ADN en el gen CLN8 (exon 2 c.1A>G; p.?/ exon 3 c.792C>G; p.Asn264Lys), lo que confirmo un genotipo heterocigoto compuesto. Conclusion. Este es el caso indice en America Latina para el nuevo fenotipo congenito de la enfermedad CLN8. La sospecha de esta patologia deberia sustentarse geneticamente en casos de sindrome neurodegenerativo con retraso psicomotor desde el nacimiento, dificultad del habla y convulsiones. El curso clinico incluye ataxia, atrofia cerebelosa y muerte temprana.

Therapeutic approaches to the challenge of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses.

The Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses (NCLs) are lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) affecting the central nervous system (CNS), with generally recessive inheritance. They are characterized by pathological lipofuscin-like material accumulating in cells. The clinical phenotypes at all onset ages show progressive loss of vision, decreasing cognitive and motor skills, epileptic seizures and premature death, with dementia without visual loss prominent in the rarer adult forms. Eight causal genes, CLN10/CTSD, CLN1/PPT1, CLN2/TPP1, CLN3, CLN5, CLN6, CLN7/MFSD8, CLN8, with more than 265 mutations and 38 polymorphisms (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ncl) have been described. Other NCL genes are hypothesized, including CLN4 and CLN9; CLCN6, CLCN7 and possibly SGSH are under study. Some therapeutic strategies applied to other LSDs with significant systemic involvement would not be effective in NCLs due to the necessity of passing the blood brain barrier to prevent the neurodegeneration, repair or restore the CNS functionality. There are therapies for the NCLs currently at preclinical stages and under phase 1 trials to establish safety in affected children. These approaches involve enzyme replacement, gene therapy, neural stem cell replacement, immune therapy and other pharmacological approaches. In the next decade, progress in the understanding of the natural history and the biochemical and molecular cascade of events relevant to the pathogenesis of these diseases in humans and animal models will be required to achieve significant therapeutic advances.

An integrated strategy for the diagnosis of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis types 1 (CLN1) and 2 (CLN2) in eleven Latin American patients.

The neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs) are a family of progressive neurodegenerative diseases that are characterized by the cellular accumulation of ceroid lipofuscin-like bodies. NCL type 1 (CLN1) and type 2 (CLN2) are caused by deficiencies of the lysosomal enzymes palmitoyl-protein thioesterase 1 (PPT-1) and tripeptidyl peptidase 1 (TPP-1), respectively. In this study, 118 Latin American patients were examined for NCL using an integrated multidisciplinary program. This revealed two patients affected by CLN1 and nine by CLN2. Both CLN1 patients had a juvenile-onset phenotype with mutation studies of one patient demonstrating the known mutation p.Arg151X and a novel mutation in intron 3, c.363-3T>G. Six of the CLN2 patients presented with the 'classical' late-infantile phenotype. The remaining three patients, who were siblings, presented with a 'protracted' phenotype and had a higher level of residual TPP-1 activity than the 'classical' CLN2 patients. Genotype analysis of the TPP1 gene in the 'classical' CLN2 patients showed the presence of the known mutation p.Arg208X and the novel mutations p.Leu104X, p.Asp276Val, and p.Ala453Val. The siblings with the 'protracted' phenotype were heterozygous for two known TPP1 mutations, p.Gln66X and c.887-10A>G. This multidisciplinary program is also being used to diagnose other NCL types.

Distribution of pectins in the pollen apertures of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster.

Cell wall pectins are some of the most complex biopolymers known, and yet their functions remain largely mysterious. The aim of this paper was to deepen the study of the spatial pattern of pectin distribution in the aperture of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster fertile pollen. We used "in situ" immunocytochemical techniques at electron microscopy, involving monoclonal antibodies JIM5 and JIM7 directed against pectin epitopes in fertile pollen grains of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster. The same region was also analyzed by classical cytochemistry for polysaccharide detection. Immunogold labelling at the JIM7 epitope showed only in mature pollen labelling mainly located at the intine endo-aperture region. Cytoplasmic structures near the plasma membrane of the vegetative cell showed no labelling gold grains. In the same pollen stge the labelling at the JIM5 epitope was mostly confined to a layer located in the limit between the endexine and the ektexine at the level of the border of the oncus. Some tubuli at the base of the ektexine showed also an accumulation of gold particles. No JIM5 label was demonstrated in the aperture chamber and either in any cytoplasmic structure of the pollen grains. The immunocytochemical technique, when compared with the traditional methods for non-cellulose polysaccharide cytochemistry is fare more sensitive and allows the univocal determination of temporal and spatial location of pectins recognized by the JIM7 and JIM5 MAbs.

Distribution of pectins in the pollen apertures of Oenothera hookeri: velans ster/+ster

Cell wall pectins are some of the most complex biopolymers known, and yet their functions remain largely mysterious. The aim of this paper was to deepen the study of the spatial pattern of pectin distribution in the aperture of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster fertile pollen. We used "in situ" immunocytochemical techniques at electron microscopy, involving monoclonal antibodies JIM5 and JIM7 directed against pectin epitopes in fertile pollen grains of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster. The same region was also analyzed by classical cytochemistry for polysaccharide detection. Immunogold labelling at the JIM7 epitope showed only in mature pollen labelling mainly located at the intine endo-aperture region. Cytoplasmic structures near the plasma membrane of the vegetative cell showed no labelling gold grains. In the same pollen stge the labelling at the JIM5 epitope was mostly confined to a layer located in the limit between the endexine and the ektexine at the level of the border of the oncus. Some tubuli at the base of the ektexine showed also an accumulation of gold particles. No JIM5 label was demonstrated in the aperture chamber and either in any cytoplasmic structure of the pollen grains. The immunocytochemical technique, when compared with the traditional methods for non-cellulose polysaccharide cytochemistry is fare more sensitive and allows the univocal determination of temporal and spatial location of pectins recognized by the JIM7 and JIM5 MAbs.

Distribution of pectins in the pollen apertures of Oenothera hookeri: velans ster/+ster

Cell wall pectins are some of the most complex biopolymers known, and yet their functions remain largely mysterious. The aim of this paper was to deepen the study of the spatial pattern of pectin distribution in the aperture of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster fertile pollen. We used "in situ" immunocytochemical techniques at electron microscopy, involving monoclonal antibodies JIM5 and JIM7 directed against pectin epitopes in fertile pollen grains of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster. The same region was also analyzed by classical cytochemistry for polysaccharide detection. Immunogold labelling at the JIM7 epitope showed only in mature pollen labelling mainly located at the intine endo-aperture region. Cytoplasmic structures near the plasma membrane of the vegetative cell showed no labelling gold grains. In the same pollen stge the labelling at the JIM5 epitope was mostly confined to a layer located in the limit between the endexine and the ektexine at the level of the border of the oncus. Some tubuli at the base of the ektexine showed also an accumulation of gold particles. No JIM5 label was demonstrated in the aperture chamber and either in any cytoplasmic structure of the pollen grains. The immunocytochemical technique, when compared with the traditional methods for non-cellulose polysaccharide cytochemistry is fare more sensitive and allows the univocal determination of temporal and spatial location of pectins recognized by the JIM7 and JIM5 MAbs. (AU)

Distribution of pectins in the pollen apertures of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster.

Cell wall pectins are some of the most complex biopolymers known, and yet their functions remain largely mysterious. The aim of this paper was to deepen the study of the spatial pattern of pectin distribution in the aperture of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster fertile pollen. We used [quot ]in situ[quot ] immunocytochemical techniques at electron microscopy, involving monoclonal antibodies JIM5 and JIM7 directed against pectin epitopes in fertile pollen grains of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster. The same region was also analyzed by classical cytochemistry for polysaccharide detection. Immunogold labelling at the JIM7 epitope showed only in mature pollen labelling mainly located at the intine endo-aperture region. Cytoplasmic structures near the plasma membrane of the vegetative cell showed no labelling gold grains. In the same pollen stge the labelling at the JIM5 epitope was mostly confined to a layer located in the limit between the endexine and the ektexine at the level of the border of the oncus. Some tubuli at the base of the ektexine showed also an accumulation of gold particles. No JIM5 label was demonstrated in the aperture chamber and either in any cytoplasmic structure of the pollen grains. The immunocytochemical technique, when compared with the traditional methods for non-cellulose polysaccharide cytochemistry is fare more sensitive and allows the univocal determination of temporal and spatial location of pectins recognized by the JIM7 and JIM5 MAbs.