BACKGROUND Madurella mycetomatis is the most prevalent causative agent of eumycetoma in Sudan, an infection characterized by the formation of grains. Many patients are exposed to the causative agent, however only a small number develop infection. M. mycetomatis contains chitin in its cell wall, which can trigger the human immune system. Polymorphisms in the genes encoding for the chitin-degradi...

To date, several genetic variants that lead to a deficiency of chitotriosidase activity have been described. The duplication of 24 bp (dup24bp) in exon 10 of the CHIT1 gene, which causes a complete loss of enzymatic activity of the gene product, is the most common among the European population. The aim of the study was to evaluate the possibility of using chitotriosidase activity as an addition...

OBJECTIVE Chitotriosidase (CT) activity is a useful biomarker for diagnosis and monitoring of Gaucher disease (GD). Its application is limited by some variants in the CT gene. Two main polymorphisms are 24 bp duplication and G102S led to reduce CT activity. The aim of this study was to determine these variants influencing on plasma CT activity. MATERIALS & METHODS Blood samples were collected...

Chitin hydrolases have been identified in a variety of organisms ranging from bacteria to eukaryotes. They have been proposed to be possible targets for the design of novel chemotherapeutics against human pathogens such as fungi and protozoan parasites as mammals were not thought to possess chitin-processing enzymes. Recently, a human chitotriosidase was described as a marker for Gaucher diseas...

Initial biochemical investigations led to the unexpected discovery that plasma samples of patients with Gaucher disease (GD), a lysosomal storage disease, had a several hundred-fold elevated ability to hydrolyse chitin, a polymer of beta 1,4-linked N-acetylglucosamine that is largely diffuse in nature.1 Later, the same investigators observed that lipid-laden activated macrophages accumulating i...

BACKGROUND We retrospectively compared biochemical responses in type 1 Gaucher disease patients to treatment with glycosphingolipid synthesis inhibitors miglustat and eliglustat and ERT. METHODS Seventeen GD1 patients were included (n = 6 eliglustat, (two switched from ERT), n = 9 miglustat (seven switchers), n = 4 ERT (median dose 60U/kg/m). Plasma protein markers reflecting disease burden (...