{"title":"Pathological insights derived from neuroimaging in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: emerging clinical applications.","authors":"Sicong Tu, Steve Vucic, Matthew C Kiernan","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001295","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001295","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Neuroimaging has been instrumental in shaping current understanding of the pathoanatomical signature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) across clinically well defined patient cohorts. The potential utility of imaging as an objective disease marker, however, remains poorly defined.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Increasingly advanced quantitative and computational imaging studies have highlighted emerging clinical applications for neuroimaging as a complementary clinical modality for diagnosis, monitoring, and modelling disease propagation. Multimodal neuroimaging has demonstrated novel approaches for capturing primary motor disease. Extra-motor subcortical dysfunction is increasingly recognized as key modulators of disease propagation.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>The neural signature of cortical and subcortical dysfunction in ALS has been well defined at the population level. Objective metrics of focal primary motor dysfunction are increasingly sensitive and translatable to the individual patient level. Integrity of extra-motor subcortical abnormalities are recognized to represent critical pathways of the ALS disease 'connectome', predicting pathological spread. Neuroimaging plays a pivotal role in capturing upper motor neuron pathology in ALS. Their potential clinical role as objective disease markers for disease classification, longitudinal monitoring, and prognosis in ALS have become increasingly well defined.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141491239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Describing and assessing behavioural symptoms in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with and without frontotemporal dementia: a scoping review.","authors":"Ana Paula Trucco, Tamara Backhouse, Eneida Mioshi","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001293","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001293","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Alongside motor and cognitive symptoms, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and ALS with frontotemporal dementia (ALSFTD) present with behavioural symptoms, which can be challenging for all affected by the disease. A scoping review of studies published between 2011 and 2024 was conducted to present the breadth of behavioural symptoms in ALS and ALSFTD, explore how they are described and assessed, and identify patterns in the literature.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>This scoping review identified 3939 articles, with 111/3939 meeting eligibility criteria. Most studies were from Australia (23.22%), Italy (16.94%) and the UK (14.29%); 75.67% were cross-sectional. Sample size ranged from 1 to 1013, as case studies were included. Overall mean age (100/111 studies) was 61.32 (SD = 4.15). Proportion of male patients (reported 102/111 studies) was 61.49%; mean disease duration (reported in 86/111 records) was 32.63 months (SD = 24.72). Papers described a broad range of behavioural symptoms (465 examples), which were thematically collated into seven categories: disinhibition (27.74%), apathy (25.16%), perseverative/compulsive behaviours (17.42%), hyperorality (10.53%), loss of sympathy or empathy (8.6%), psychotic symptoms (7.74%), and loss of insight about disease and changes (2.8%). Most studies (78.37%) used validated behavioural assessments that elicited carer's perspectives.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Despite extensive evidence of behavioural symptoms in ALS, implementation of assessments and management of behavioural symptoms in clinical care remain limited. Clinicians must assess behavioural symptoms, as these can negatively affect disease prognosis, patient treatment engagement and increase family distress. Measures capturing carers' perspectives through interviews are ideal as they can reveal anosognosia, lack of sympathy and lack of empathy.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141466826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carla Bolano-Díaz, José Verdú-Díaz, Jordi Díaz-Manera
{"title":"MRI for the diagnosis of limb girdle muscular dystrophies.","authors":"Carla Bolano-Díaz, José Verdú-Díaz, Jordi Díaz-Manera","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001305","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001305","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>In the last 30 years, there have many publications describing the pattern of muscle involvement of different neuromuscular diseases leading to an increase in the information available for diagnosis. A high degree of expertise is needed to remember all the patterns described. Some attempts to use artificial intelligence or analysing muscle MRIs have been developed. We review the main patterns of involvement in limb girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMDs) and summarize the strategies for using artificial intelligence tools in this field.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>The most frequent LGMDs have a widely described pattern of muscle involvement; however, for those rarer diseases, there is still not too much information available. patients. Most of the articles still include only pelvic and lower limbs muscles, which provide an incomplete picture of the diseases. AI tools have efficiently demonstrated to predict diagnosis of a limited number of disease with high accuracy.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Muscle MRI continues being a useful tool supporting the diagnosis of patients with LGMD and other neuromuscular diseases. However, the huge variety of patterns described makes their use in clinics a complicated task. Artificial intelligence tools are helping in that regard and there are already some accessible machine learning algorithms that can be used by the global medical community.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141916343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recent insights in striated muscle laminopathies.","authors":"Marine Leconte, Gisèle Bonne, Anne T Bertrand","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001297","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001297","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>To highlight recent insights in different aspects of striated muscle laminopathies (SMLs) related to LMNA mutations.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Clinical and genetic studies allow better patient management and diagnosis, with confirmation of ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VTA) risk prediction score to help with ICD implantation and development of models to help with classification of LMNA variants of uncertain significance. From a pathophysiology perspective, characterization of lamin interactomes in different contexts revealed new lamin A/C partners. Expression or function modulation of these partners evidenced them as potential therapeutic targets. After a positive phase 2, the first phase 3 clinical trial, testing a p38 inhibitor targeting the life-threatening cardiac disease of SML, has been recently stopped, thus highlighting the need for new therapeutic approaches together with new animal and cell models.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Since the first LMNA mutation report in 1999, lamin A/C structure and functions have been actively explored to understand the SML pathophysiology. The latest discoveries of partners and altered pathways, highlight the importance of lamin A/C at the nuclear periphery and in the nucleoplasm. Modulation of altered pathways allowed some benefits, especially for cardiac involvement. However, additional studies are still needed to fully assess treatment efficacy and safety.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141579178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy/Guillain-Barré syndrome guidelines - impact on clinical practise.","authors":"Jeffrey A Allen","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001290","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001290","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>There is no diagnostic biomarker that can reliably detect Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). Diagnosis relies upon integrating key clinical characteristics and relevant supportive data. Consequently, misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis are common. Diagnostic criteria have proven valuable resources to improve diagnosis, but are underutilized during routine clinical care.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>In 2021, the EAN/PNS CIDP criteria was published, and were followed by the EAN/PNS GBS criteria in 2023. Both guidelines utilized GRADE methodology to formulate evidence-based recommendations that are intended to be used by adult and paediatric clinicians across diverse care settings to optimize diagnostic accuracy and improve patient outcomes during routine clinical care.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>The EAN/PNS GBS and CIDP criteria detail specific clinical, electrophysiological, and laboratory features that raise diagnostic confidence, and call attention to diagnostic mimics. The sensitivity of EAN/PNS and other modern criteria to detect GBS and CIDP is high, but utilization during clinical practice is low. Complexity is one factor limiting widespread application. Strategies are needed to optimize criteria adoption during routine clinical care such that GBS and CIDP diagnosis can be achieved with greater speed and accuracy.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141317103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gene therapies for CMT neuropathies: from the bench to the clinic.","authors":"Marina Stavrou, Kleopas A Kleopa","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001289","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001289","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) neuropathies are rare, genetically heterogeneous and progressive diseases for which there are no approved treatments and their management remains mostly supportive and symptomatic. This review is intended to provide an update on recent developments in gene therapies for different CMT neuropathies.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Increasing knowledge of disease pathomechanisms underlying several CMT types has facilitated the development of promising viral and nonviral gene therapy approaches. Some of these therapies are currently approaching the crucial step of moving from the bench to the clinic, having passed the proof-of-concept stage in rodent models and some also in larger animals. However, questions of optimal delivery route and dose, off-target effects, and possible payload toxicity remain to be clarified for several of these approaches. Furthermore, limited resources, the rarity of most CMT subtypes, and issues of safety and regulatory requirements, create the need for consensus guidelines and optimal clinical trial design.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Promising gene therapies have been developed for several CMT neuropathies, with proof-of-principle demonstrated in relevant disease models. Advantages and drawbacks of each approach are discussed and remaining challenges are highlighted. Furthermore, we suggest important parameters that should be considered in order to successfully translate them into the clinic.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141317102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The evolving spectrum of complex inherited neuropathies.","authors":"Alexander M Rossor, Saif Haddad, Mary M Reilly","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001307","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001307","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Inherited peripheral neuropathies can be divided into those diseases in which peripheral neuropathy is the sole or main feature of the disease (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease) and those in which peripheral neuropathy is just one feature of a more complex syndrome. In recent years there has been a substantial expansion in the number of genes associated with complex neuropathy syndromes.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>This review will focus on emerging themes in this group of diseases, namely the increasing number of diseases due to repeat expansions; the emergence of both recessive and dominant negative alleles in the same gene producing a common phenotype and diseases in which there is selective loss of the allele from haematopoietic stem cells making genetic diagnosis on blood derived DNA problematic.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>In this review we provide a practical approach to investigating and diagnosing patients with peripheral neuropathy as part of a complex syndrome and provide an updated table of the genes associated with this group of diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11377048/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141855053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The genetics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.","authors":"Melissa Nijs, Philip Van Damme","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001294","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001294","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has a strong genetic basis, but the genetic landscape of ALS appears to be complex. The purpose of this article is to review recent developments in the genetics of ALS.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Large-scale genetic studies have uncovered more than 40 genes contributing to ALS susceptibility. Both rare variants with variable effect size and more common variants with small effect size have been identified. The most common ALS genes are C9orf72 , SOD1 , TARDBP and FUS . Some of the causative genes of ALS are shared with frontotemporal dementia, confirming the molecular link between both diseases. Access to diagnostic gene testing for ALS has to improve, as effective gene silencing therapies for some genetic subtypes of ALS are emerging, but there is no consensus about which genes to test for.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Our knowledge about the genetic basis of ALS has improved and the first effective gene silencing therapies for specific genetic subtypes of ALS are underway. These therapeutic advances underline the need for better access to gene testing for people with ALS. Further research is needed to further map the genetic heterogeneity of ALS and to establish the best strategy for gene testing in a clinical setting.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11377058/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141533938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Current advance on distal myopathy genetics.","authors":"Johanna Ranta-Aho, Mridul Johari, Bjarne Udd","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001299","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001299","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Distal myopathies are a clinically heterogenous group of rare, genetic muscle diseases, that present with weakness in hands and/or feet at onset. Some of these diseases remain accentuated in the distal muscles whereas others may later progress to the proximal muscles. In this review, the latest findings related to genetic and clinical features of distal myopathies are summarized.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Variants in SMPX , DNAJB2, and HSPB6 have been identified as a novel cause of late-onset distal myopathy and neuromyopathy. In oculopharyngodistal myopathies, repeat expansions were identified in two novel disease-causing genes, RILPL1 and ABCD3. In multisystem proteinopathies, variants in HNRNPA1 and TARDBP , genes previously associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, have been shown to cause late-onset distal myopathy without ALS. In ACTN2 -related distal myopathy, the first recessive forms of the disease have been described, adding it to the growing list of genes were both dominant and recessive forms of myopathy are present.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>The identification of novel distal myopathy genes and pathogenic variants contribute to our ability to provide a final molecular diagnosis to a larger number of patients and increase our overall understanding of distal myopathy genetics and pathology.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11377054/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141626268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aicee D Calma, Nathan Pavey, Parvathi Menon, Steve Vucic
{"title":"Neuroinflammation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: pathogenic insights and therapeutic implications.","authors":"Aicee D Calma, Nathan Pavey, Parvathi Menon, Steve Vucic","doi":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001279","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WCO.0000000000001279","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Neuroinflammation appears to be an important pathogenic process in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dysfunction of central immune pathways, including activation of microglia and astrocytes, and peripherally derived immune cells, initiate noncell autonomous inflammatory mechanisms leading to degeneration. Cell autonomous pathways linked to ALS genetic mutations have been recently identified as contributing mechanism for neurodegeneration. The current review provides insights into the pathogenic importance of central and peripheral inflammatory processes in ALS pathogenesis and appraises their potential as therapeutic targets.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>ALS is a multistep process mediated by a complex interaction of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. Noncell autonomous inflammatory pathways contribute to neurodegeneration in ALS. Activation of microglia and astrocytes, along with central nervous system infiltration of peripherally derived pro-inflammatory innate (NK-cells/monocytes) and adaptive (cell-mediated/humoral) immune cells, are characteristic of ALS. Dysfunction of regulatory T-cells, elevation of pro-inflammatory cytokines and dysbiosis of gut microbiome towards a pro-inflammatory phenotype, have been reported as pathogenic mechanisms in ALS.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Dysregulation of adaptive and innate immunity is pathogenic in ALS, being associated with greater disease burden, more rapid disease course and reduced survival. Strategies aimed at modulating the pro-inflammatory immune components could be of therapeutic utility.</p>","PeriodicalId":11059,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141075590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}