Neuropathic Gaucher disease (nGD), also known as type 2 or type 3 Gaucher disease, is caused by a deficiency of the enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GC). This deficiency impairs the degradation of glucosylceramide (GluCer) and glucosylsphingosine (GluSph), leading to their accumulation in the brains of patients and mouse models of the disease. These accumulated substrates have been thought to cause t...

Parkinson disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer disease with a lifetime risk in the UK population of almost 5%. An association between PD and Gaucher disease (GD) derived from the observation that GD patients and their heterozygous carrier relatives were at increased risk of PD. GD is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder caused by homozygo...

Gaucher disease is an autosomal recessive disease, caused by a lack or functional deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme, glucocerebrosidase (GCase). Recently, mutations in the glucocerebrosidase gene (GBA) have been associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) and GBA mutations are now considered the most important genetic vulnerability factor for PD. In this study, we have investigated (i) in vivo wh...

Alpha-synuclein (αSyn) plays a central role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Recent multicenter genetic studies have revealed that mutations in the glucocerebrosidase 1 (GBA1) gene, which are responsible for Gaucher's disease, are strong risk factors for PD and DLB. However, the mechanistic link between the functional loss of glucocerebrosidas...

Gaucher disease type 1 (GD1), caused by mutations in the GBA1 gene, results β-glucocerebrosidase (GCase) deficiency. Gene therapy is under investigation as a potential treatment option for patients with GD1. The investigational gene FLT201 consists of an adeno-associated virus (AAVS3) encoding novel GCase variant (GCase-85). Preclinical characterization showed promising results, GCase-85 being ...

Therapeutic efforts in neurodegenerative diseases have been very challenging, particularly due to a lack of validated and mechanism-based therapeutic targets and biomarkers. The basic idea underlying the novel therapeutic approaches reviewed here is that by exploring the molecular basis of neurodegeneration in a rare lysosomal disease such as Gaucher's disease (GD), new molecular targets will b...

Gaucher disease, a lysosomal glycolipid storage disorder, results from the genetic deficiency of an acidic glucosidase, glucocerebrosidase (GC). The beneficial effects of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for Gaucher disease suggest that GC gene transduction and the transplantation of autologous hematopoietic stem cells (gene therapy) may similarly alleviate symptoms. We have constru...

1. Injection of a single dose of conduritol B epoxide into mice produced almost complete destruction of glucocerebrosidase (D-glucosyl-N-acylsphingosine glucohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.45) in liver, spleen, brain, and kidney within 5 h. Restoration of activity became noticeable within 1 day (2 days in the case of brain) and was about 80% of normal within 16 days. 2. The same injection produced less de...

To date, a plethora of studies have provided evidence favoring an association between Gaucher disease (GD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). GD, the most common lysosomal storage disorder, results from the diminished activity of the lysosomal enzyme β-glucocerebrosidase (GCase), caused by mutations in the β-glucocerebrosidase gene (GBA). Alpha-synuclein (ASYN), a presynaptic protein, has been stron...

Glucocerebrosidase (GBA1) gene mutations increase the risk of Parkinson disease (PD). While the cellular mechanisms associating GBA1 mutations and PD are unknown, loss of the glucocerebrosidase enzyme (GCase) activity, inhibition of autophagy and increased α-synuclein levels have been implicated. Here we show that autophagy lysosomal reformation (ALR) is compromised in cells lacking functional ...