Pantothenate, the precursor of coenzyme A, is an essential nutrient for the intraerythrocytic stage of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Pantothenate enters the malaria-infected erythrocyte via new permeation pathways induced by the parasite in the host cell membrane (Saliba, K. J., Horner, H. A., and Kirk, K. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 10190-10195). We show here that pantothenate is ...

Iron is an essential element necessary for energy production, DNA and neurotransmitter synthesis, myelination and phospholipid metabolism. Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) involves several genetic disorders, two of which, aceruloplasminemia and neuroferritinopathy, are caused by mutations in genes directly involved in iron metabolic pathway, and others, such as pantothenate...

Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) is a collective term to indicate a group of neurodegenerative diseases presenting accumulation of iron in the basal ganglia. These disorders can result in progressive dystonia, spasticity, parkinsonism, neuropsychiatric abnormalities, and optic atrophy or retinal degeneration. Onset age ranges from infancy to late adulthood and the rate of p...

Neurological abnormalities associated with spiculated, "acanthocytic" red cells in blood have been summarized as neuroacanthocytosis. This is a heterogeneous group of conditions that can now be clearly subdivided on the basis of genetic discoveries. The core neuroacanthocytosis syndromes are autosomal recessive chorea-acanthocytosis (ChAc) and the X-linked McLeod syndrome (MLS). Huntington's di...

INTRODUCTION Neuroferritinopathy is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder that includes a movement disorder, cognitive decline, and characteristic findings on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) due to abnormal iron deposition. Here, we present a late-onset case, along with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). CASE PRESENTATION We report the case of a 74-year-old Caucasian female wit...