Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromuscular disorder characterized by degeneration of alpha motor neurons resulting in hypotonia, progressive muscular weakness and atrophy.30 Spinal muscular atrophy is one of the leading hereditary causes of infant mortality,31 it comprises the second most common fatal progressive diseases after cystic fibrosis.28 Spinal muscular atrophy is the most common...

Protein aggregation is associated with neurodegeneration. Polyglutamine expansion diseases such as spinobulbar muscular atrophy and Huntington disease feature proteins that are destabilized by an expanded polyglutamine tract in their N-termini. It has previously been reported that intracellular aggregation of these target proteins, the androgen receptor (AR) and huntingtin (Htt), is modulated b...

Autosomal dominant congenital spinal muscular atrophy is characterized by predominantly lower limb weakness and wasting, and congenital or early-onset contractures of the hip, knee and ankle. Mutations in TRPV4, encoding a cation channel, have recently been identified in one large dominant congenital spinal muscular atrophy kindred, but the genetic basis of dominant congenital spinal muscular a...

Moosa, A., and Dubowitz, V. (1973). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 48, 386. Spinal muscular atrophy in childhood: two clues to clinical diagnosis. A coarse tremor was noted in 13 children suffering from the childhood form of spinal muscular atrophy. Tremor has not been seen in any other condition producing proximal muscle weakness in childhood, and its presence should therefore suggest the d...

Cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) repeat expansions in the coding regions of nine polyglutamine (polyQ) genes (HTT, ATXN1, ATXN2, ATXN3, CACNA1A, ATXN7, ATN1, AR, and TBP) are the cause of several neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington's disease (HD), six different spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy, and spinobulbar muscular atrophy. The expanded CAG repe...

Spinal muscular atrophy is distinct among neurodegenerative conditions of the motor neuron, with onset in developing and maturing patients. Furthermore, the rate of degeneration appears to slow over time, at least in the milder forms. To investigate disease pathophysiology and potential adaptations, the present study utilized axonal excitability studies to provide insights into axonal biophysic...