Pathogenic variants in the gene are often dominant-negative and cause an X-linked form of Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) with growth retardation and typical facial features. However, rare variants cause a developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE) with intractable early-onset epilepsy that is absent in CdLS. Here we describe an 11-year-old girl with epilepsy, walking disorder, and neurodevelopmental disorder.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedicina (Kaunas)
September 2024
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is the most frequent cause of acute flaccid paresis in children. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical and electrophysiological findings and outcomes of children with GBS diagnosed in our unit. Moreover, the literature on pediatric GBS cases from the past 5 years was reviewed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHereditary congenital facial palsy (HCFP) is a medical condition caused by dysfunction of the seventh cranial nerve. HCFP is characterized by feeding difficulties and dysmorphic features in the orofacial region. In some cases hearing loss, strabismus, limb malformations, and musculoskeletal defects may be associated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurogenetics
July 2024
Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (ARSs) aminoacylate tRNA molecules with their cognate amino acid, enabling information transmission and providing substrates for protein biosynthesis. They also take part in nontranslational functions, mediated by the presence of other proteins domains. Mutations in ARS genes have been described as responsive to numerous factors, including neurological, autoimmune, and oncological.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Med Genomics
March 2024
Background: Thousand and one amino-acid kinase 1 (TAOK1) encodes the MAP3K protein kinase TAO1, which has recently been displayed to be essential for neuronal maturation and cortical differentiation during early brain development. Heterozygous variants in TAOK1 have been reported in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, with or without macrocephaly, hypotonia and mild dysmorphic traits. Literature reports lack evidence of neuronal migration disorders in TAOK1 patients, although studies in animal models suggest this possibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genetic causes of epilepsies and developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEE) with onset in early childhood are increasingly recognized. Their outcomes vary from benign to severe disability. In this paper, we wished to retrospectively review the clinical, genetic, EEG, neuroimaging, and outcome data of patients experiencing the onset of epilepsy in the first three years of life, diagnosed and followed up in four Italian epilepsy centres (Epilepsy Centre of San Paolo University Hospital in Milan, Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit of AUSL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, Pediatric Neurology Unit of Vittore Buzzi Children's Hospital, Milan, and Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTick-Borne Encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Flaviviridae family. TBEV transmission typically occurs through infected Ixodes tick bite or by consumption of unpasteurised milk from infected cattle. We report the clinical, neuroimaging, electroencephalogram (EEG), and laboratory (microbiological tests and spinal tap) data of a 6- year-old boy with Tick-borne encephalitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActivating Signal Cointegrator 1 complex (ASC-1 complex) is a ribonucleoprotein tetramer participating in transcriptional coactivation and RNA processing, consisting of four subunits: ASCC1-ASCC3 and ASC-1. Pathogenic variants in the TRIP4 and ASCC1 genes, encoding the ASC-1 and ASCC1 subunits, were recently described in congenital myopathic conditions without signs of motor neuron involvement, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy-like (SMA-like) phenotype with prenatal bone fractures. We present a novel pathogenic TRIP4 variant in two siblings with severe phenotype and mixed sensory-motor polyneuropathy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Synaptotagmin 1 (SYT1), the predominant SYT isoform in the central nervous system, likely acts by promoting vesicle docking, deforming the plasma membrane via Ca-dependent membrane penetration.
Case Presentation: Here, we describe a 21-year-old woman harboring a novel variant in the gene, who presents with a complex phenotype, featuring severe intellectual disability, absent speech, behavioral abnormalities, motor stereotypies, dystonic posturing of her hands, a hyperkinetic movement disorder in her childhood, infantile hypotonia, sialorrhea, mild dysmorphic features, epilepsy, peculiar EEG findings, and severe scoliosis.
Discussion: Based on our case and literature review on the 22 previously described patients, we can confirm a complex neurodevelopmental disorder in which, unlike other synaptopathies, epilepsy is present in a subset of cases (including our patient: 5/23, 22%), although characteristic EEG changes are far more common (10/23, 43.
Background: Tolosa-Hunt syndrome (THS) and recurrent painful ophthalmoplegic neuropathy (RPON) are rare diseases reported within the "Painful lesions of the cranial nerves" section of the International Classification of Headache Disorders-3 edition (ICHD-3). In case of a first painful attack, differential diagnosis could be challenging and many pitfalls are due to the rarity of the disorders and the lack of information about correct medical management in youngsters.
Case Presentation: Our main purpose was to report a new case of THS and a new case of RPON describing management and diagnostic investigation at the time of the first episode.
Autosomal recessive spinocerebellar ataxia 13 (SCAR13) is a neurological disease characterized by psychomotor delay, mild to profound intellectual disability with poor or absent language, nystagmus, stance ataxia, and, if walking is acquired, gait ataxia. Epilepsy and polyneuropathy have also been documented in some patients. Cerebellar atrophy and/or ventriculomegaly may be present on brain MRI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenes (Basel)
September 2023
Aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase deficiency (AADCd) is a rare recessive metabolic disorder caused by pathogenic homozygous or compound heterozygous variants in the dopa decarboxylase (DDC) gene. Adeno-associated viral vector-mediated gene transfer of the human DDC gene injected into the putamen is available. The typical presentation is characterized by early-onset hypotonia, severe developmental delay, movement disorders, and dysautonomia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSplit Hand-Foot Malformation (SHFM) is a congenital limb defect characterized by a median cleft of the hands and/or feet due to the absence/hypoplasia of the central rays. It may occur as part of a syndromic condition or as an isolated malformation. The most common of the six genetic loci identified for this condition is correlated to SHFM1 and maps in the 7q21q22 region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: We aimed to report on previously unappreciated clinical features associated with -related intellectual disability (ID) syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by global developmental delay, intellectual disability, and language delay, with or without autistic features.
Methods: We performed whole-exome sequencing (WES) to molecularly characterize an individual presenting with ID, epilepsy, autism spectrum disorder, behavioral problems, and facial dysmorphisms as major features.
Results: WES allowed us to identify a previously unreported splice site variant, c.
Introduction: Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) is a group of inherited peripheral neuropathies characterized by wide genotypic and phenotypic variability. The onset is typically in childhood, and the most frequent clinical manifestations are predominantly distal muscle weakness, hypoesthesia, foot deformity (pes cavus) and areflexia. In the long term, complications such as muscle-tendon retractions, extremity deformities, muscle atrophy and pain may occur.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency is a rare congenital autosomal recessive metabolic disorder caused by pathogenic homozygous or compound heterozygous variants in the dopa decarboxylase (DDC) gene. Adeno-associated viral vector-mediated gene transfer of the human AADC gene into the putamina has become available. This systematic review on PubMed, Scopus databases, and other sources is aimed at describing the AADC whole phenotypic spectrum in order to facilitate its early diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPathogenic variants in the β1-catenin (CTNNB1) gene have been identified in patients with various diseases, including syndromic intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, and neurodevelopmental disorder with spastic diplegia and visual defects (NEDSDV). We report on the clinical, genetic, neuroimaging, and neurophysiological data of a 15-year-old patient with complex hereditary spastic paraplegias with exotropia, dyskinesia, and cerebellar signs and a so-far unreported demyelinating (mainly sensory) polyneuropathy in her lower limbs. She carries the novel, de novo, likely pathogenic heterozygous c.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe term "arthrogryposis" is used to indicate multiple congenital contractures affecting two or more areas of the body. Arthrogryposis is the consequence of an impairment of embryofetal neuromuscular function and development. The causes of arthrogryposis are multiple, and in newborns, it is difficult to predict the molecular defect as well as the clinical evolution just based on clinical findings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSPG6, caused by NIPA1 (nonimprinted in Prader-Willi/Angelman syndrome) gene pathogenic variants, is mainly considered as a pure autosomal dominant hereditary spastic paraplegia (AD-HSP), even if descriptions of complex cases have also been reported. We detected the common c.316G > A, p.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCharcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) is the most frequent group of inherited neuropathies and includes several heterogeneous phenotypes. Over 80 causative genes have been described so far. Variants in the microrchidia family CW-type zinc finger 2 () gene have been described in several axonal polyneuropathy (CMT2) patients with childhood or adult onset.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough neurobeachin (NBEA) de novo genetic variants have been mainly reported in patients with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), they have also been recently associated with early childhood epilepsy. We report an 11-year-old boy who was first evaluated at 34 months of age because of drug-resistant epileptic encephalopathy. He also had developmental delay and prominent autistic features.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPathogenic variants in phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis class B (PIGB) gene have been first described as the cause of early infantile epileptic encephalopathy 80 (EIEE-80) in 2019. This disorder, an inherited glycosylphosphatidylinositol deficiency, is associated with a complex neurologic phenotype, including developmental delay, early-onset epilepsy and peripheral neuropathy. We report on a 5 year-old girl born from consanguineous parents, manifesting severe global developmental delay with absent speech, mixed peripheral polyneuropathy, hypotonia, bilateral equino-varo-supinated-cavus foot, early-onset scoliosis, elevated serum alkaline phosphatase and a single episode of febrile status epilepticus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbnormal breathing patterns are a typical feature of Rett and Pitt-Hopkins syndrome and their variants. Their treatment can be challenging, with a risk of long-term detrimental consequences. Early infantile epileptic encephalopathy (EIEE) type 54 is a rare epileptic encephalopathy caused by pathogenic variants in the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein U () gene.
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