Rare Neurodegenerative Diseases: Clinical and Genetic Update.

Rare Neurodegenerative Diseases: Clinical and Genetic Update. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2017;1031:443-496 Authors: Matilla-Dueñas A, Corral-Juan M, Rodríguez-Palmero Seuma A, Vilas D, Ispierto L, Morais S, Sequeiros J, Alonso I, Volpini V, Serrano-Munuera C, Pintos-Morell G, Álvarez R, Sánchez I Abstract More than 600 human disorders afflict the nervous system. Of these, neurodegenerative diseases are usually characterised by onset in late adulthood, progressive clinical course, and neuronal loss with regional specificity in the central nervous system. They include Alzheimer's disease and other less frequent dementias, brain cancer, degenerative nerve diseases, encephalitis, epilepsy, genetic brain disorders, head and brain malformations, hydrocephalus, stroke, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease), Huntington's disease, and Prion diseases, among others. Neurodegeneration usually affects, but is not limited to, the cerebral cortex, intracranial white matter, basal ganglia, thalamus, hypothalamus, brain stem, and cerebellum. Although the majority of neurodegenerative diseases are sporadic, Mendelian inheritance is well documented. Intriguingly, the clinical presentations and neuropathological findings in inherited neurodegenerative forms are often indistinguishable from those of sporadic cases, suggesting that converging genomic signatures and pathophysiologic mechanisms under...
Source: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - Category: Research Tags: Adv Exp Med Biol Source Type: research