HSP. I have to admit that the hereditary spastic paraplegias are not mentioned all that frequently on our blog. The main reason is that there is little overlap between early-onset epilepsies and adult-onset progressive neurodegenerative conditions that are characterized by spasticity and weakness in the lower extremities. In a recent publication, we described an epilepsy gene that became an HSP gene, showing an unusual overlap between both groups of conditions and establishing a novel mechanism in HSP pathogenesis. Here is a continuation of the KCNA2 story. Continue reading
Tag Archives: HSP
AP4S1 in fever-associated epilepsies and spastic paraplegia
Peds vs. adult. Sometimes it makes a fundamental difference in diagnosis whether a patient is seen in a pediatric setting or by an adult specialist later in life. Here is the most recent example from our consortium, which was just published in Human Molecular Genetics: what initially looked like recessive inheritance with intellectual disability and a peculiar fever-associated epilepsy syndrome eventually turned out to be the second reported family of the novel spastic paraplegia gene AP4S1. This raises the question of how much we are missing if we are looking at the wrong point in time. Let’s have a look at how genetics can help us see an overlap of diseases where we usually don’t have a chance to. Continue reading