RESUMO
In recent years, epigenetic mechanisms have been implicated in the development of multifactorial diseases including neurodegenerative disorders. In Parkinson's disease (PD), as a synucleinopathy, most studies focused on DNA methylation of SNCA gene coding alpha-synuclein but obtained results were rather contradictory. In another neurodegenerative synucleinopathy, multiple system atrophy (MSA), very few studies investigated the epigenetic regulation. This study included patients with PD (n = 82), patients with MSA (n = 24), and a control group (n = 50). In three groups, methylation levels of CpG and non-CpG sites in regulatory regions of the SNCA gene were analyzed. We revealed hypomethylation of CpG sites in the SNCA intron 1 in PD and hypermethylation of predominantly non-CpG sites in the SNCA promoter region in MSA. In PD patients, hypomethylation in the intron 1 was associated with earlier age at the disease onset. In MSA patients, hypermethylation in the promotor was associated with shorter disease duration (before examination). These results showed different patterns of the epigenetic regulation in two synucleinopathies-PD and MSA.
RESUMO
Both non-epileptic sleep disturbances and epilepsy are common in patients with mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS), so diagnosis of sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy in these patients is a tackling issue. We present a case of an adult patient with MPS IIIB (Sanfilippo syndrome), who presented with numerous nocturnal events of sudden awakening and hypermotor behavior, which had been previously regarded as parasomnias. Overnight video-EEG captured numerous stereotypical seizures with ictal pattern in the frontal regions, which led the diagnosis of SHE. The patient was started with carbamazepine, which resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of seizures. Our report provides further support for use of overnight video-EEG in the differential diagnosis of sleep-related disorders in MPS, yet true incidence of SHE in MPS patients remains unknown.
