Molecular genetics of neurodegenerative diseases.

Abstract

Recent progress in human neurogenetics has led to the discovery of new modes of inheritance and disease expression, including 1) stably inherited duplications in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1a, 2) dynamic mutations in fragile X syndrome and myotonic dystrophy, and 3) identical mutations with different phenotypes in fatal familial insomnia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The mechanisms by which known mutations of the amyloid precursor protein lead to early-onset Alzheimer's disease remain unexplained, despite hundreds of recent studies of beta-amyloid.