Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis as a disease model of sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia, the progressive decline of muscle mass and function, has traditionally been viewed as an age-related process leading to a broad range of adverse outcomes. However, it has been widely reported that sarcopenia can occur earlier in life in association with various conditions (i.e.

Nusinersen safety and effects on motor function in adult spinal muscular atrophy type 2 and 3.

Objective: To retrospectively investigate safety and efficacy of nusinersen in a large cohort of adult Italian patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Methods: Inclusion criteria were: (1) clinical and molecular diagnosis of SMA2 or SMA3; (2) nusinersen treatment started in adult age (>18 years); (3) clinical data available at least at baseline (T0-beginning of treatment) and 6 months (T6).

Results: We included 116 patients (13 SMA2 and 103 SMA3) with median age at first administration of 34 years (range 18-72).

Interpretation of the Epigenetic Signature of Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy in Light of Genotype-Phenotype Studies.

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is characterized by incomplete penetrance and intra-familial clinical variability. The disease has been associated with the genetic and epigenetic features of the D4Z4 repetitive elements at 4q35. Recently, D4Z4 hypomethylation has been proposed as a reliable marker in the FSHD diagnosis.

Assessing the Role of Anti rh-GAA in Modulating Response to ERT in a Late-Onset Pompe Disease Cohort from the Italian GSDII Study Group.

Introduction: Patients with late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) receiving enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) may develop IgG antibodies against alglucosidase alpha (anti-rhGAA) in the first 3 months of treatment. The exact role of these antibodies in modulating efficacy of ERT in this group of patients is still not fully understood. To assess whether anti rh-GAA antibodies interfere with ERT efficacy, we studied a large Italian cohort of LOPD patients.

Late-onset polyglucosan body myopathy in five patients with a homozygous mutation in GYG1.

Five Sardinian patients presented in their 5th or 6th decade with progressive limb girdle muscle weakness but their muscle biopsies showed vacuolar myopathy. The more or less abundant subsarcolemmal and intermyofibrillar vacuoles showed intense, partially α-amylase resistant, PAS-positive deposits consistent with polyglucosan. The recent description of late-onset polyglucosan myopathy has prompted us to find new genetic defects in the gene (GYG1) encoding glycogenin-1, the crucial primer enzyme of glycogen synthesis in muscle.

Influence of treatments in multiple sclerosis disability: a cohort study.

Background And Objective: A critical aspect of multiple sclerosis (MS) treatments is understanding the effect of disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) on the long-term risk of disability and whether the effect is related to disability at start of treatment.

Methods: We performed an observational study on 3060 MS patients. The effect of therapy on progression to Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 3.

Overlapping syndromes in laminopathies: a meta-analysis of the reported literature.

Mutations on the LMNA gene are responsible for an heterogeneous group of diseases. Overlapping syndromes related to LMNA gene alterations have been extensively reported. Study scope is to perform a systematic analysis of the overlapping syndromes so far described and to try to correlate the clinical features to the associated genetic alterations.

Cardiac involvement in patients with lamin A/C gene mutations: a cohort observation.

Introduction: LMNA gene mutations are associated with cardiac and skeletal muscle alterations.

Methods: A cohort of 21 mutated individuals was assessed with clinical and instrumental investigations over the years.

Results: The median observation period was 6 years.

Dilated cardiomyopathy with conduction defects in a patient with partial merosin deficiency due to mutations in the laminin-α2-chain gene: a chance association or a novel phenotype?

Patients with a partial reduction of merosin due to mutations in the laminin-α2 chain gene usually present with a mild form of congenital muscular dystrophy or a limb-girdle-like muscular dystrophy. To our knowledge, cardiac impairment has never been reported in such patients. A longitudinal study of a patient with partial laminin-α2 deficiency secondary to mutations in the LAMA2 gene revealed dilated cardiomyopathy with ventricular arrhythmias.

Cardiac and muscle imaging findings in a family with X-linked Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy.

The following is a report on a large family with 5 males affected by the X-linked recessive form of Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy with mutation in the STA gene. A detailed longitudinal cardiological evaluation and muscle imaging studies allowed for the assessment of intrafamilial variability of cardiac and muscle involvement. Long term cardiological follow up in the 5 affected males and in 7 female carriers revealed different degrees of severity, ranging from tachycardia-bradycardia syndrome and variable biatrial and left ventricle dilatation, to an episode of isolated symptomatic sustained ventricular tachycardia requiring a device implantation.

Aberrant splicing in the LMNA gene caused by a novel mutation on the polypyrimidine tract of intron 5.

Introduction: Familial dilated cardiomyopathy with conduction system defects variably associated with skeletal muscle abnormalities is frequently caused by LMNA gene mutations.

Methods: A family affected by cardiac abnormalities, either isolated or variably associated with skeletal muscle compromise, was identified. LMNA gene analysis was applied to all family members.

Muscle imaging analogies in a cohort of patients with different clinical phenotypes caused by LMNA gene mutations.

Laminopathies are a heterogeneous group of LMNA-gene-mutation-related clinical disorders associated with alterations of cardiac and skeletal muscle and peripheral nerves, metabolic defects, and premature aging. Leg muscle imaging investigations were performed in a cohort of patients with LMNA gene alterations who were suffering from Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 1B, isolated cardiac disorders or a phenotype of cardiac disorders, and lipodystrophy, including one individual with peripheral neuropathy. Leg muscle imaging revealed varying degrees of alteration in the soleus and medial head of gastrocnemius in each subject.