γ-sarcoglycan and dystrophin mutation spectrum in an Algerian cohort.

Introduction: We report the genetic analysis of a large series of 76 Algerian patients from 65 unrelated families who presented with early onset severe muscular dystrophy and a clinical phenotype resembling limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2C.

Methods: To define the genetic basis of the diseases in these families, we undertook a series of analyses of the γ-sarcoglycan (SGCG) and DMD genes.

Results: Fifteen families were shown to carry SGCG variants.

Mutations in ABHD12 cause the neurodegenerative disease PHARC: An inborn error of endocannabinoid metabolism.

Polyneuropathy, hearing loss, ataxia, retinitis pigmentosa, and cataract (PHARC) is a neurodegenerative disease marked by early-onset cataract and hearing loss, retinitis pigmentosa, and involvement of both the central and peripheral nervous systems, including demyelinating sensorimotor polyneuropathy and cerebellar ataxia. Previously, we mapped this Refsum-like disorder to a 16 Mb region on chromosome 20. Here we report that mutations in the ABHD12 gene cause PHARC disease and we describe the clinical manifestations in a total of 19 patients from four different countries.

Identification of the SPG15 gene, encoding spastizin, as a frequent cause of complicated autosomal-recessive spastic paraplegia, including Kjellin syndrome.

Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous disorders. Both "uncomplicated" and "complicated" forms have been described with various modes of inheritance. Sixteen loci for autosomal-recessive "complicated" HSP have been mapped.

Mutations in SPG11 are frequent in autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia with thin corpus callosum, cognitive decline and lower motor neuron degeneration.

Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSP) are neurodegenerative diseases mainly characterized by lower limb spasticity associated, in complicated forms, with additional neurological signs. We have analysed a large series of index patients (n = 76) with this condition, either from families with an autosomal recessive inheritance (n = 43) or isolated patients (n = 33), for mutations in the recently identified SPG11 gene. We found 22 truncating mutations, including the first four splice-site mutations, segregating in seven isolated cases and 13 families.

Refinement of the SPG15 candidate interval and phenotypic heterogeneity in three large Arab families.

Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) type 15 is an autosomal recessive (AR) form of complicated HSP mainly characterized by slowly progressive spastic paraplegia, mental retardation, intellectual deterioration, maculopathy, distal amyotrophy, and mild cerebellar signs that has been associated with the Kjellin syndrome. The locus for this form of HSP, designated SPG15, was mapped to an interval of 19 cM on chromosome 14q22-q24 in two Irish families. We performed a clinical-genetic study of this form of HSP on 147 individuals (64 of whom were affected) from 20 families with AR-HSP.