Chapter 5 Flashcards
What are microRNAs
- small non-coding RNA molecules that inhibit gene expression
- account for about 5% of the human genome
- once processed, single strands of miRNAs are incorporated into a multiprotein complex (RNA-induced silencing compex; RISC)
- the miRNA basepairs with its target, causing the RISC to repress the translation of the mRNA or cause mRNA cleavage, silencing the gene from the target mRNA at a posttranscriptional level
Loss of function mutations in AD disorders
- more common
- affect regulatory proteins or subunits of multimeric proteins that may act through a dominant negative effect
Features of X-linked disorders
- the majority are recessive (notable exception: Vit D resistant rickets)
- sons of affected men are not affected but daughters have a 1/2 chance of being carriers
- carrier women usually not affected but due to random inactivation of one x chromosome, she may show the trait to a variable degree
4 categories of single gene disorders
- enzyme defects
- membrane receptor/transport defects
- nonenzymatic protein defects
- defects causing unusual reactions to drugs
Examples of enzyme defects in Mendelian disorders
- accumulation of a substrate that is toxic (e.g. lysosomal storage diseases)
- insufficient production of the end product (e.g. albinism)
- failure to inactivate a tissue damaging substrate (e.g. lack of A1AT resulting in excessive neutrophil elastase activity)
Which is better, Niemann-Pick A or B?
B, usually they survive into adulthood because they lack CNS involvement while type A die from marked accumulation of sphingomyelin and progressive wasting by 3 years of age
EM findings in Niemann-Pick A
-“zebra bodies”: concentric lamellated myelin figures in the cytoplasm
Niemann Pick type C
- mutations in NPC1 and NPC2
- primarily a defect of lipid transport
- clinically heterogenous
- cells accumulate cholesterol and gangliosides
Gaucher disease
- most common lysosomal storage disease
- autosomal recessive mutations in gene encoding glucocerebrosidase
- three types: 1) non-neuropathic (splenic and skeletal involvement, 2)acute neuronopathic, 3)mixture between 1 & 2
Histologic appearance of Gaucher cells
- unlike other lysosomal storage disorders, aren’t vacuolated but rather have a wrinkled tissue paper fibrillary appearance
- PAS positive
- EM: bilayers of stored lipid in distended lysosomes
Mucopolysaccharidoses
- deficiencies of lysosomal enzymes for degrading mucopolysaccharides (GAGs)
- accumulate deramatan sulfate, heparan sulfate, keratan sulfate and chondroitan sulfate
- all AR except Hunter syndrome which is X-linked recessive
Glycogen storage diseases
- deficiency in enzymes involved in the synthesis or sequential degradation of glycogen
- hepatic forms (enzymes involved in hepatic glycogen degradation, e.g. von Gierke disease; hepatomegaly and hypoglycemia)
- myopathic forms, deficiency in enzymes involved in glycolysis (McArdle disease, muscle cramps after exercise and high blood lactate)
- those involved with deficiency of acid maltase or lack of branching enzymes, e.g. Pompe disease; cardiomegaly prominent in all
Discuss karyotyping
- arrest dividing cells in metaphas (e.g. with Colcemid): metaphase spread
- usually involves staining with Giemsa (G-banding)
Anaphase lag
-one homologous chromosome in meiosis or one chromatid in mitosis is lags behind and is left out of the nucleus, resulting in one normal cell and one monosomic cell
Nondisjunction
-during gametogenesis, gametes are either n+1 or n-1
Mosaicism
- results from mitotic errors early in development producing two or more populations of cells with different chromosomal complements
- can occur during the cleavage of the fertilized ovum or in somatic cells
Features of chromosome 22q11.2 syndrome
- variable but include congenital heart defects, palatal abnormalities, facial dysmorphism, developmental delay, T cell immunodeficiency and hypocalcemia
- increased risk for psychotic illnesses (25% of adults with this syndrome develop schizophrenia)
- diagnosed by detection of the deletion by FISH
- possible related to loss of TBX1 (from this region), which is expressed in the pharyngeal mesenchyma and has PAX9 as its target, which controls palata, parathyroid and thymic development