Results Thirteen patients were female. The mean onset age was 58 years and average evolution time of the disease was 5, 6 years. All patients were TTR Met30 and 2 patients were compound heterozygous TTR met30 met119. Four patients had been submitted to liver transplant and nine were on Tafamidis treatment. Amyloid deposits on anterior lens surface were observed in 15 eyes (37,5%), scalloped pup...

We report an unusual cause of leptomeningeal MR enhancement, amyloid, along the surfaces of the spinal cord and brain stem and in the spinal subarachnoid space, with sacral intradural and epidural deposition. Type I familial amyloid polyneuropathy may cause amyloid deposition along the leptomeninges of the spinal cord and brain in addition to the visceral organs and the peripheral somatic and a...

The transthyretin (TTR) amyloidoses are a group of degenerative diseases caused by TTR aggregation, requiring rate-limiting tetramer dissociation. Kinetic stabilization of TTR, by preferential binding of a drug to the native tetramer over the dissociative transition state, dramatically slows the progression of familial amyloid polyneuropathy. An established method for quantifying the kinetic st...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy is the most disabling hereditary polyneuropathy of adult onset because of a point mutation of transthyretin gene. This review updates our knowledge about natural history of the disease, phenotypes, diagnosis tools for small and large fibers involvement, expert's consensus for both symptomatic and asymptomatic follow-up, and treatme...

home to three Research Institutes and 75 companies, acts as an incubator for biotechnology companies with a wide range of research support technology. As Director of the Drug Discovery Platform of PCB, Jordi Quintana oversees novel research and offers services to the pharmaceutical industry and academia. In 2009 Jordi and his team secured funding to investigate a rare disease, amyloidosis. In p...

Background Tafamidis is a transthyretin (TTR) stabilizer approved to delay neurological progression associated with stage 1 TTR familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP). A placebocontrolled, randomized 18-month registration trial allowed for continued evaluation of patients receiving tafamidis (20 mg oral once-daily) through an ongoing open label extension study. The effectiveness of tafamidis for...

Introduction There are very few studies about psychopathology in familial amyloid polyneuropathy patients or in asymptomatic carriers. In our clinical experience in a psychiatric and psychological consultation, we mostly see patients suffering from depression and anxiety symptoms and emotional distress related to some specific, emotionally charged moments caused by the disease. We wanted to eva...

Neuropathy is often a major manifestation of systemic amyloidosis. It is most frequently seen in patients with hereditary transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis, but is also present in 20% of patients with systemic immunoglobulin light chain (primary) amyloidosis. Familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) is the most common form of inherited amyloidotic polyneuropathy, with clinical and electrophysiologic...

Breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are major causes of death in older women. Interestingly, breast cancer occurs less frequently in AD patients than in the general population. Amyloidosis, the aggregation of amyloid proteins to form amyloid bodies, plays a central role in the pathogenesis of AD and other human neuropathies by forming intracellular fibrillary proteins. Contrary to popula...

The most serious issue in domino liver transplantation (DLT) using liver grafts from patients with transthyretin (TTR)-related familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) is the development of iatrogenic transmitted amyloidosis (de novo amyloidosis) in DLT-recipients. However, little is known regarding the mechanisms of the initial stage of amyloid formation in these recipients. We detected initial l...