Surface enhanced laser desorption/ionisation time of flight (SELDI-TOF) mass spectrometry has been used to search for new protein biomarkers in the plasma of patients with mucopolysacharidoses (MPS). Differences in the levels of some plasma proteins, particularly the apolipoprotein ApoCI, were observed between MPS patients and normal controls, using the different chromatographic surfaces (ProteinChips). ApoCI was identified by both its mass and by immunological techniques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSanfilippo syndrome type D is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease that is caused by a deficiency of N-acetylglucosamine-6-sulphatase, one of the enzymes involved in the catabolism of heparan sulphate. Only 15 patients have been described in the literature and just two mutations have been reported to date. We present the clinical, biochemical and molecular analysis of two Italian Sanfilippo D families.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report a 12-year-old boy with a vacuolar myopathy with clinical and histologic features of X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy. This is a rare and slowly progressive disease of skeletal muscle without cardiac, nervous system, or other organ involvement. The differential diagnosis of vacuolar myopathy includes acid maltase deficiency, Danon disease, and X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBased on our preliminary observation of abnormal glycosylation in a cutis laxa patient, nine cutis laxa patients were analyzed for congenital defects of glycosylation (CDG). Isoelectric focusing of plasma transferrin and apolipoproteinC-III showed that three out of nine patients had a defect in the biosynthesis of N-glycans and core 1 mucin type O-glycans, respectively. Mass spectrometric N-glycan analyses revealed a relative increase of glycans lacking sialic acid and glycans lacking sialic acid and galactose residues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConditions under which the glycosylation capacity of cells is limited provide an opportunity for studying the efficiency of site-specific glycosylation and the role of glycosylation in the maturation of glycoproteins. Congenital disorders of glycosylation type 1 (CDG-I) provide such a system. CDG-I is characterized by underglycosylation of glycoproteins due to defects in the assembly or transfer of the common dolichol-pyrophosphate-linked oligosaccharide precursor of asparagine-linked glycans.
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