leigh disease/adenosine

Autopsy examination confirmed the diagnosis of subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy (SNE) in a 7-month-old male infant who underwent several metabolic studies before death. Intermittent lactic acidemia and fumaric aciduria, an extreme hyperglycemic response to an intravenous bolus of alanine,

We studied a 17-year-old girl with subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy (Leigh syndrome). Lactate and pyruvate levels were increased in serum and cerebrospinal fluid. The oxidation rates of all substrates tested, i.e. pyruvate in liver, and pyruvate, malate and 2-oxoglutarate in muscle, were

Extracts of tissue fluids from a patient with subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy inhibit thiamine pyrophosphate-adenosine triphosphate phosphotransferase of rat brain. Brain tissue from the patient, in contrast to normal brain tissue, contained essentially no thiamine triphosphate, although

The large family of a 21-year-old man who died of Leigh disease was investigated for evidence of neurological abnormalities and presence of the adenosine triphosphate-thiamine diphosphate phosphoryltransferase inhibitor factor. Of 217 persons (seven generations) included in the pedigree, 68 were

Cultured skin fibroblasts from a child with fatal lacticacidemia displayed an abnormally high lactate:pyruvate ratio of 77:1, compared with control values of 22:1-27:1. When protease-treated isolated mitochondria were used, activity of the respiratory-chain enzymes was found to be approximately 60%

Infants with subacute necrotizing encephalopathy or Leigh's encephalopathy usually are first examined before the age of 2 years with degenerative neurologic disease with variable clinical appearance. Necrotizing lesions of the CNS occur with special predilection of the gray matter. Biochemical

Mitochondrial disorders associated with defects in the respiratory chain can be attributable to mutations in the mitochondrial genome (mitochondrial DNA) or the nuclear genome (nuclear DNA). Because the brain is highly dependent on oxidative metabolism, encephalopathy is a common presentation, and

The mitochondrial ATPase 6 gene encodes a subunit of F1F0 adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase. A mutation in the ATPase 6 gene has been genetically linked to two maternally inherited genetic diseases: neurological muscle weakness, ataxia, and retinitis pigmentosa (NARP) and certain cases of

Children with chronic metabolic acidosis should be investigated to determine the presence of an organic acid, especially when the plasma electrolyte profile shows a deficiency of anion. One of the organic acids that should be looked for in such a patient is lactic acid. Lactic acidosis due to tissue

Leigh syndrome (LS), or subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy, is the most common childhood mitochondrial encephalopathy, accounting for more than 50% of cases in this age group. Its estimated incidence is 1:40,000 - 1:77,000 liveborn infants a year. LS is a rare progressive multisystem fatal