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A 47-year-old man with a family history of juvenile dementia in his mother presented with memory loss and cognitive decline. Neuropsychological tests revealed impaired orientation, working memory, and apraxia. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed diffuse brain atrophy, and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) showed hypometabolism in the bilateral parietal lobes, posterior cingulate gyri, and precuneus, suggestive of Alzheimer's disease. However, amyloid-beta and tau PET scans were negative. Genetic testing revealed an abnormal repeat insertion in the prion protein gene, confirming inherited prion disease. This case highlights the need to consider inherited prion disease in the differential diagnosis of early-onset familial dementia.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2169/internalmedicine.5143-24 | DOI Listing |
Nat Cell Biol
August 2025
Molecular Medicine Program, Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
We hypothesize that stress-induced RNA structural changes, stabilized by RNA-binding proteins in biomolecular condensates, propagate via conformational catalysis in a prion-like manner across generations. Our model suggests that RNA structure encodes heritable memory, and its roles should be explored in epigenetic inheritance, evolutionary adaptation and disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCNS Neurol Disord Drug Targets
July 2025
Department of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy, IMU University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) can misfold into an infectious and pathogenic form (PrPSc) to produce prion diseases, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which are rare and deadly neurodegenerative conditions. The conversion of PrPC to PrPSc, which builds up as toxic aggregates in the central nervous system, is caused by sporadic, inherited, or acquired pathways. PrPSc-induced proteostasis failure, oxidative stress, neuronal toxicity, and progressive neurodegeneration are characteristics of pathogenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Biol Rep
July 2025
Medical Bionanotechnology Lab, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Centre for Global Health Research, Saveetha Medical College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Thandalam, Chennai, 602101, India.
Prion diseases are neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans and animals. They are commonly characterized by the absence of DNA and RNA and are distinguished from inherited or infectious forms. The cellular prion proteins (PrP) misfold and accumulate into their pathogenic isoforms in these diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Alzheimers Dis
August 2025
MRC Prion Unit at UCL, UCL Institute of Prion Diseases, University College London, London, UK.
BackgroundPrP systemic amyloidosis is increasingly recognized as a novel inherited prion disease (IPD) syndrome caused by C-terminal truncating mutations. As well as systemic manifestations they cause gradually progressive cognitive impairment with neurofibrillary tangle pathology which can be mistaken for Alzheimer's disease (AD).ObjectiveWe describe the clinical, biomarker and neuropathological features of a novel frameshift mutation of resulting in protein truncation at codon 157.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHum Mol Genet
August 2025
Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, Umeå, SE 901 85, Sweden.
Mutations in superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1) are a common cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Inheritance is as a rule dominant, but in carriers of the most common mutation, D90A, disease can develop in both homozygous and, more rarely, in heterozygous individuals with unexplained differences in clinical presentation. There is mounting evidence that prion-like spread of SOD1 aggregation is the primary cause of the disease.
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