Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive disease caused by mutation or deletion of the survival motor neuron gene 1 (SMN1). SMN2, a copy gene, influences the severity of SMA and may be used in somatic gene therapy of patients with SMA in the future. The SMA carrier analysis developed at the Institute of Medical Genetics, Catholic University (Rome), on the Applied Biosystems real-time PCR instruments by Dr Danilo Tiziano and his group, provides a robust workflow to evaluate SMA carrier status.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Distal hereditary motor neuropathies (dHMN) form a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of disorders, characterized by muscle weakness and atrophy predominating at the distal part of the limbs, due to the progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord. We report here a novel rare variant of dHMN with autosomal recessive inheritance in a large Jewish family originating from Morocco. The disease is characterized by a predominance of paralysis at the lower limbs and an early adulthood onset.
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