The epidemiological data suggests a very high familial incidence of CJD in this population and a molecular genetic research elucidated that CJD segregates with a point mutation at codon 200 of the PrP gene resulting in the substitution of Lysine for Glutamate.
In Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) the focus among Libyan Jews was previously thought to be related to culinary habits; a point mutation of the prion-protein gene was first described by us.
This article compares beta-amyloid precursor protein (beta-APP) disorders exemplified by Alzheimer's disease (AD), with prion protein (PrP) disorders, exemplified by Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans and scrapie in animals.
Fatal familial insomnia and a subtype of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, two clinically and pathologically distinct diseases, are linked to the same mutation at codon 178 (Asp-178-->Asn) but segregate with different genotypes determined by this mutation and the methionine-valine polymorphism at codon 129 of the prion protein gene.
Furthermore, the linkage of mutations within the PRNP gene with phenotypic appearance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome points to importance of the PrP gene.
Mutations of the prion protein (PrP) gene are present in patients with Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS), familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and fatal familial insomnia (FFI).
We performed prion protein gene (PRNP) coding sequence analysis in 57 French subjects with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and found a mutation of the PRNP coding sequence in nine subjects (15.8%); the mutation corresponded with a known family history of CJD in only three of these subjects.
Genetic study of over 200 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS), fatal familial insomnia (FFI), and kuru have brought a reliable body of evidence that the familial forms of CJD and all known cases of GSS and FFI are linked to germline mutations in the coding region of the PRNP gene on chromosome 20, either point substitutions or expansion of the number of repeat units.
Genetic studies of over 200 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS), fatal familial insomnia (FFI) and kuru have brought a reliable body of evidence that the familial forms of CJD and all known cases of GSS and FFI are linked to germline mutations in the coding region of the PRNP gene on chromosome 20, either point substitutions or expansion of the number of 24-nucleotide repeat units.
More than a dozen mutations in the prion protein gene that result in nonconservative amino acid substitutions segregate with the inherited prion diseases including familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).
These results underline the importance of the PrP gene and especially the homozygous codon 129 genotype in determining the risk of developing CJD after contamination by a TSE agent.
Unexpected new genetic mechanisms have been discovered in human neurologic diseases, including (a) identical mutations of the prion protein gene in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and fatal familial insomnia with the phenotypic expression directed by an accompanying polymorphism; (b) stable duplications of chromosome 17 in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (type 1A) that involve many genes, only one of which appears to cause neuropathy; and (c) highly variable, dynamic mutations in myotonic dystrophy, fragile X syndrome, and Kennedy's syndrome that modulate variable expressivity in multiple tissues.