Among the conditions in which circulating GDF15 levels are highly elevated are mitochondrial disorders, where early skeletal muscle fatigue is a key symptom.
The paper described a 12yo female with multisystem mitochondrial disorder (MID) due to the compound heterozygous variants c.1963_1964dupAT and p.Ile382Met in OPA1 manifesting phenotypically with congenital nystagmus, developmental delay, visual impairment, gait ataxia, epilepsy, a stroke-like episode (SLE) with encephalopathy and vomiting, and hearing impairment.
Friedreich's ataxia is a multisystemic genetic disorder within the family of mitochondrial diseases that is characterized by reduced levels of the essential mitochondrial protein frataxin.
Homozygous and compound heterozygous variants in the LONP1 gene encoding the LonP1 protease have recently been shown to cause a diverse spectrum of human pathologies, ranging from classical mitochondrial disease phenotypes, in addition to profound neurologic impairment and multi-organ dysfunctions, some of which are uncommon to mitochondrial disorders.
These data indicate that mitochondrial impairment replicates all the major steps of Wallerian degeneration, placing it upstream of NMNAT2 loss, with the potential to contribute to axon pathology in mitochondrial disorders.
In conclusion, despite their promising potential to rescue CI defects, due to a possible competition with remaining CI activity, plant NDH-2 should be regarded with caution as potential therapeutic tools for human mitochondrial diseases.
Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) syndrome is a mitochondrial disorder that is commonly caused by the m.3243A > G mutation in the MT-TL1 gene encoding for mitochondrial tRNA(Leu(UUR)).
The present results suggest that the inhibition of HDAC1 suppresses the pathogenic processes that lead to the degeneration of motoneurons in mitochondrial diseases.
We report the case of an 8-month-old female with autosomal dominant, de novo DNM1L c. 1228G>A (p. E410K) mutation and mitochondrial disorder, septo-optic dysplasia, hypotonia, developmental delay, elevated blood lactate, and severe mitochondrial cardiomyopathy leading to nonischemic congestive heart failure and cardiogenic shock resulting in death.
Subsequent Sanger sequencing of POLG in a further 275 unrelated probands with genetically unconfirmed mitochondrial disease revealed a third unrelated proband with a similar phenotype harboring homozygous c.1879C>T; p.R627W mutations and a fourth patient, with a milder clinical disorder, harboring compound heterozygous POLG c.1879C>T; p.R627W and c.2341G>A; p.A781T mutations.
Thus, our findings indicate that ALA/SFC is effective in elevating OXPHOS, HO-1 protein, and mtDNA copy number, resulting in an increase in OCR and ATP levels, which represents a promising therapeutic option for mitochondrial diseases.