| Popis: |
Angelman syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental disease found in 1 to 10,000 to 40,000 births, exhibiting an equal gender ratio. Key characteristics of the disease include an ataxic gait with tremor, severe mental retardation, profound speech impairment and seizures. Behavioral deficits such as increased anxiety and autism spectrum disorder features is found in affected individuals as well. The disease stems from the imprinted region 15q11.2-13q where genes are either maternally or paternally expressed as a result of parent-of-origin specific expression of the alleles. There are four main genetic etiologies causing AS namely, i) a large deletion ranging from 4-6 Mb on the maternally inherited allele including imprinted and bi-allelically expressed genes, ii) maternal deletion of the Ubitiquin ligase E3 (UBE3A) gene, iii) paternal uniparental disomy and iv) imprinting defect leading to inappropriate methylation of the locus. So far, there is no cure for AS rather the symptoms are ameliorated using a multidisciplinary approach. The goal of the doctoral study was to further decipher the role of Ube3a and Gabra5 using two mouse models to gain more knowledge about the involvement of these two genes for future therapeutic interventions in for Angelman syndrome. One model generated was a full gene deletion... |
