Reduction of podocyte globotriaosylceramide content in adult male patients with Fabry disease with amenable mutations following 6 months of migalastat treatment.

Objective: Deficiency of α-galactosidase A (αGal-A) in Fabry disease leads to the accumulation mainly of globotriaosylceramide (GL3) in multiple renal cell types. Glomerular podocytes are relatively resistant to clearance of GL3 inclusions by enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). Migalastat, an orally bioavailable small molecule capable of chaperoning misfolded αGal-A to lysosomes, is approved in the European Union for the long-term treatment of patients with Fabry disease and amenable (α-galactosidase A enzyme) mutations.

The validation of pharmacogenetics for the identification of Fabry patients to be treated with migalastat.

Purpose: Fabry disease is an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder caused by mutations in the α-galactosidase A gene. Migalastat, a pharmacological chaperone, binds to specific mutant forms of α-galactosidase A to restore lysosomal activity.

Methods: A pharmacogenetic assay was used to identify the α-galactosidase A mutant forms amenable to migalastat.

Lysosomal dysfunction in a mouse model of Sandhoff disease leads to accumulation of ganglioside-bound amyloid-β peptide.

Alterations in the lipid composition of endosomal-lysosomal membranes may constitute an early event in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated the possibility that GM2 ganglioside accumulation in a mouse model of Sandhoff disease might be associated with the accumulation of intraneuronal and extracellular proteins commonly observed in AD. Our results show intraneuronal accumulation of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ)-like, α-synuclein-like, and phospho-tau-like immunoreactivity in the brains of β-hexosaminidase knock-out (HEXB KO) mice.