Juvenile neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis is the most common type of neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis in the United States and Europe and is inherited as an autosomal recessive genetic disorder.
Juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL) belongs to the neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses characterized by blindness/seizures/motor/cognitive decline and early death.
CLN3 is an endosomal/lysosomal transmembrane protein mutated in classical juvenile onset neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, a fatal inherited neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder.
Juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL) is a lysosomal storage disease caused by autosomal recessive mutations in ceroid lipofuscinosis 3 (CLN3).
A preliminary expression study of two of these mutant enzymes supports the conclusion that juvenile-onset NCL (JNCL with GROD) is caused by missense mutations in the PPT gene that result in mutated enzymes with residual PPT enzyme activity.
A sequence analysis indicated that the CLN3 gene was not likely to be responsible for this case of feline NCL because no deleterious mutation was detected.
Although functions are defined for some of the soluble proteins that are defective in NCL (cathepsin D, PPT1, and TPP1), the primary function of the other proteins defective in NCLs (CLN3, CLN5, CLN6, CLN7, and CLN8) remain poorly defined.
Although the CLN3 gene associated with the disease process in subjects with the juvenile form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis was discovered in 1995, our knowledge of the physiological function of its gene product, CLN3 protein, is still incomplete.
Among the fourteen different forms of NCL described to date, CLN1 and CLN10 are marked by granular lipopigments, CLN2 by curvilinear profiles (CVPs), CLN3 by fingerprint profiles (FPPs), and other forms by a combination of these features.
Analysis of D16S285 in pedigrees with late-infantile NCL virtually excluded the CLN3 region, suggesting that these two forms of NCL are genetically distinct.
Batten disease (juvenile-onset neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis; JNCL) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by the cytosomal accumulation of autofluorescent proteolipopigments in neurons and other cell types.
Batten disease (juvenile-onset neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis [JNCL]) is an autosomal recessive condition characterized by accumulation of lipopigments (lipofuscin and ceroid) in neurons and other cell types.
Classic late-infantile NCL (Jansky-Bielschowsky disease) is caused by mutations in a gene encoding a pepstatin-insensitive lysosomal peptidase (CLN2 on chromosome 11p15), and juvenile-onset NCL (Batten disease) is caused by mutations in a gene encoding a 438-amino-acid membrane protein (CLN3 on chromosome 16p12) of unknown function.