The survival motor neuron (SMN) gene was lacking in 6/12 patients with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) associated with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Neither point mutation in the SMN gene nor evidence for linkage to chromosome 5q13 were found in the other patients. Hitherto, arthrogryposis was regarded as an exclusion criterion in SMA. Our data strongly suggest that AMC of neurogenic ...

spinal muscular atrophies (smas) are one of the more common autosomal recessive and single gene disorders. they are heterogeneous disorders, both in phenotypic and genotypic aspects. prevalence of these disorders are about 1 of every 6000 to 25000 live born babies in different ethnicities. in some chinese population prevalence of disease reported to be 1 in 50000. if it was true, carrier freque...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a common motor neuron degenerative disease and the leading genetic cause of death of young children. The survival of motor neurons (SMN) gene, the SMA disease gene, is homozygously deleted or mutated in more than 98% of SMA patients. The SMN protein interacts with itself, with SMN-interacting protein 1, and with several spliceosomal small nuclear ribonucleoprote...

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is caused by diminished function of the Survival of Motor Neuron (SMN) protein, but the molecular pathways critical for SMA pathology remain elusive. We have used genetic approaches in invertebrate models to identify conserved SMN loss of function modifier genes. Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans each have a single gene encoding a protein orthologo...

Mutations of the telomeric copy of the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene cause spinal muscular atrophy. A deletion of the Eef1a2 gene leads to lower motor neuron degeneration in wasted mice. Indirect evidences have been shown that the eEF1A protein family may interact with SMN, and our previous study showed that abnormalities of neuromuscular junctions in wasted mice were similar to those of ...

The axonal SMN (a-SMN) protein is a truncated isoform of SMN1, the spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) disease gene. a-SMN is selectively localized in axons and endowed with remarkable axonogenic properties. At present, the role of a-SMN in SMA is unknown. As a first step to verify a link between a-SMN and SMA, we investigated by means of over-expression experiments in NSC34 motor neurons whether SMA...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by low levels of full-length survival motor neuron (SMN) protein due to the loss 1 (SMN1) gene and inefficient splicing 2 (SMN2) gene, which mostly affects alpha neurons lower spinal cord. Despite U.S. Food Drug Administration (FDA) approved SMN-dependent therapies including Nusinersen, Zolgensma® Evrysdi™, SMA still devastatin...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the most common motor neuron degenerative disease and is the principal genetic cause of infant mortality, affecting 1 in every 6000 newborns. The survival of motor neurons (SMN) gene has been implicated as the disease-causing gene in SMA, and it is deleted or mutated in over 98% of SMA patients. Our lab has pioneered research elucidating the functions of the SMN...

The SMN (survival motor neuron) gene plays an important role in ontogenesis and its dysfunction leads to immatu-rity of skeletal muscles and motor neurons in the spinal cord. As a result of SMN mutations the affected cells die and clinical symptoms of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) develop. Physiologically, SMN together with gemins is part of a multiprotein complex of particular importance to mo...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a frequent recessive autosomal disorder. It is caused by mutations or deletion of the telomeric copy of the survival motor neuron (SMN) gene, leading to depletion in SMN protein levels. The treatment rationale for SMA is to halt or delay the degeneration of motor neurons, but to date there are no effective drug treatments for this disease. We have previously dem...