Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie
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Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr · Sep 2018
Review[Spinal muscular atrophy - clinical spectrum and therapy].
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a progressive autosomal recessive motor neuron disease with an incidence of 1:10,000 live births, caused by loss of the survival motor neuron 1 gene (SMN1), and represents the most frequent neurodegenerative disorder in children. With greater understanding of the molecular basis of SMA in the past two decades, a major focus of therapeutic developments has been on increasing the fulllength SMN protein by increasing the inclusion of exon 7 in SMN2 transcripts, enhancing SMN2 gene expression, stabilizing the SMN protein or replacing the SMN1 gene. ⋯ Early diagnosis will be crucial for therapeutic success; presumably, the clinical outcome will be much better if treatment already starts presymptomatically. Therefore, presymptomatic diagnosis of SMA via a nationwide genetic newborn screening will be key for an efficient therapy prior to motor neuron death.
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Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr · Sep 2018
Review[Immune-mediated / inflammatory and hereditary neuropathies - overview and diagnostic algorithm].
This paper is a practical survey of immune-mediated, inflammatory and hereditary neuropathies along with recommendations for diagnostic procedures. The large group of immune-mediated, inflammatory neuropathies includes the Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic-inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy and their subtypes, vasculitic, paraneoplastic and paraproteinemic neuropathies as well as neuropathies resulting from connective tissue disorders. ⋯ Research into the genetic causes has made significant progress in the last 20 years; up to now more than 80 genes mutated in hereditary neuropathies have been identified. Besides classification into axonal, demyelinating or intermediate neuropathies based on electroneurography, distinguishing between sensorimotor, pure motor and (autonomous) sensory neuropathies as well as consideration of particular clinical features and ethnic origin can be helpful in orientating molecular genetic analysis.