Gaucher disease (GD) is an inherited lysosomal disorder, originating from deficient activity of the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GCase). Normally, GCase hydrolyzes glucocerebroside (GC) to glucose and ceramide; however, impaired activity of this enzyme leads to the accumulation of GC in macrophages, termed "Gaucher cells." Gaucher disease is associated with hepatosplenomegaly, cytopenia...

Considerable clinical variability occurs in adult Gaucher disease type I and three main subtypes may be delineated: a very mild form, a severe form, and a moderate form which itself presents various clinical manifestations. A study based on 25 families from our clinic and a review of published reports showed that when both parents were heterozygous and more than one child was affected with Gauc...

INTRODUCTION Gaucher disease is caused by a deficiency of the enzyme β-glucocerebrosidase. Treatment with enzyme replacement therapy has been available for the past two decades but, although effective, enzyme replacement therapy can be delivered only by intravenous infusion every other week. The oral substrate reduction therapy miglustat (Zavesca®) has been available in Europe since 2002 for th...

There are few published data from real-world clinical experience with miglustat (Zavesca), an oral inhibitor of glucosylceramide synthase, in type 1 Gaucher disease. We report data from a prospective, open-label investigational study that evaluated substrate reduction therapy with miglustat 100 mg t.i.d. as a maintenance therapy in patients with Type 1 Gaucher disease who had been switched from...

OBJECTIVE To study the clinical and biochemical spectrum of Gaucher disease. DESIGN Assay of beta glucosidase enzyme in leucocytes in patients with splenomegaly, and in chorionic villi for prenatal diagnosis. SETTING Hospital-based. SUBJECTS Of 13 cases of Gaucher disease, aged 1-6 years, 9 were identified at Delhi and 4 at Bombay. RESULTS The enzyme beta-glucosidase was 0.65 nmol/h/mg ...

Gaucher's disease is a lysosomal storage disease caused by a deficiency in the enzyme glucocerebrosidase. A small, heat-stable glycoprotein first obtained from Gaucher spleen (Ho, M. W., and O'Brien, J. S. (1971) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S.A. 68, 2810-2813) has been observed to stimulate the activity of glucocerebrosidase isolated from normal tissue. It has been suggested that this material mi...

BACKGROUND The European Gaucher Alliance (EGA) was established in 1994 and constituted in 2008 as an umbrella group supporting patient organisations for Gaucher disease. Every two years, the EGA conducts a questionnaire survey of member associations to help develop its priorities and annual work programme. Results of the latest survey are presented. METHODS Between June 2012 and April 2013, t...

Direct enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) has been introduced as a means to treat a number of rare, complex genetic conditions associated with lysosomal dysfunction. Gaucher disease was the first for which this therapy was applied and remains the prototypical example. Although ERT using recombinant lysosomal enzymes has been shown to be effective in altering the clinical course of Gaucher disease...

Gaucher disease is the most common lysosomal storage disease. It is caused by the defective activity of acid β-glucosidase, which results in the accumulation of lipid glucocerebroside in macrophages throughout the body. In this case report we describe the case of a young adult woman with splenomegaly as the primary manifestation of this pathology. This is a case of type 1 Gaucher disease becaus...

The involvement of the protein α-synuclein (SNCA) in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease is strongly supported by the facts that (i) missense and copy number mutations in the SNCA gene can cause inherited Parkinson's disease; and (ii) Lewy bodies in sporadic Parkinson's disease are largely composed of aggregated SNCA. Unaffected heterozygous carriers of Gaucher disease mutations have an inc...