We identified disease-causing single nucleotide variants in 11 out of 45 individuals affecting genes commonly associated with West syndrome (such as CDKL5, ARX) but also in genes predominantly linked to other epileptic disorders (such as DEPDC5, SCN1A, WDR45, AARS).
The current treatment options include hormonal treatment (adrenocorticotropic hormone and high-dose steroids) and the GABA aminotransferase inhibitor vigabatrin, while ketogenic diet can be given as add-on treatment in refractory IS.
Infantile spasms (IS) have poor outcomes and limited treatment options, including vigabatrin, a γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) aminotransferase inactivator.
We performed a case-control study to determine whether the risk of infantile spasms is influenced by common ABCB1 polymorphisms in a Han Chinese children's population consisting of 91 patients and 368 healthy individuals.
(Asn479Ile)] in PHACTR1, encoding a molecule critical for the regulation of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) and the actin cytoskeleton, in unrelated Japanese individuals with West syndrome (infantile spasms with intellectual disability).
Although IS alters expression of ~30% of the ARC genes in both sexes the transcriptomic effects are 3× more severe in males than their female counterparts, as indicated by the Weighted Pathway Regulation measure.
Here, we describe a novel ARFGEF2 mutation in five related patients presenting with WS, microcephaly, periventricular heterotopia and thin corpus callosum.
Our data suggest expansions in one of the ARX polyA tracts results in nuclear protein aggregation and an increase in cell death; likely underlying the pathogenesis of the associated infantile spasms and mental retardation.
Mutations in the CDKL5 gene (also known as STK9) have recently been shown to cause early onset epilepsy and severe mental retardation (ISSX or West syndrome).
Mutations in the human ARX gene have been shown to cause nonsyndromic X-linked mental retardation (MRX) as well as syndromic forms such as X-linked lissencephaly with abnormal genitalia (XLAG), Partington syndrome and X-linked infantile spasm.
Lissencephaly caused by LIS1 or DCX mutation frequently results in West syndrome, while lissencephaly due to ARX mutation is associated with the most severe form of epilepsy but never results in West syndrome nor infantile spasms.
Our data suggest expansions in one of the ARX polyA tracts results in nuclear protein aggregation and an increase in cell death; likely underlying the pathogenesis of the associated infantile spasms and mental retardation.
We have identified mutations in an X chromosome-linked, Aristaless-related, homeobox gene (ARX), in nine families with mental retardation (syndromic and nonspecific), various forms of epilepsy, including infantile spasms and myoclonic seizures, and dystonia.
Although null mutations of ARX in human patients result in the severe neurologic syndrome XLAG (X-linked lissencephaly associated with abnormal genitalia), the most common mutation is the expansion of the first polyalanine tract of ARX, which results primarily in the clinical syndrome ISSX (infantile spasms).