Bulbar muscle impairment in patients with late onset Pompe disease: Insight from the French Pompe registry.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Late onset Pompe disease (LOPD) is a rare neuromuscular disorder caused by a deficit in acid alpha-glucosidase. Macroglossia and swallowing disorders have already been reported, but no study has focused yet on its frequency and functional impact on patients' daily life. METHODS: We reviewed 100 adult LOPD patients followed in 17 hospitals in France included in the French national Pompe disease registry. The Swallowing Quality of Life Questionnaire and the Sydney Swallow Questionnaire were completed by patients, and a specialist carried out a medical examination focused on swallowing and assigned a Salassa score to each patient. Respiratory and motor functions were also recorded. Subgroup analysis compared patients with and without swallowing difficulties based on Salassa score. RESULTS: Thirty-two percent of patients presented with swallowing difficulties, often mild but sometimes severe enough to require percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (1%). Daily dysphagia was reported for 20% of our patients and aspirations for 18%; 9.5% were unable to eat away from home. Macroglossia was described in 18% of our patients, and 11% had lingual atrophy. Only 15% of patients presenting with swallowing disorders were followed by a speech therapist. Swallowing difficulties were significantly associated with macroglossia (p = 0.015), longer duration of illness (p = 0.032), and a lower body mass index (p = 0.047). CONCLUSIONS: Swallowing difficulties in LOPD are common and have significant functional impact. Increased awareness by physicians of these symptoms with systematic examination of the tongue and questions about swallowing can lead to appropriate multidisciplinary care with a speech therapist and dietitian if needed.

Identification of a human ABCC10 orthologue in Catharanthus roseus reveals a U12-type intron determinant for the N-terminal domain feature.

ABC (ATP-binding cassette) transporters are members of a large superfamily of proteins that utilize ATP hydrolysis to translocate a wide range of substrates across biological membranes. In general, members of C subfamily (ABCC) are structurally characterized by an additional (N-terminal) transmembrane domain (TMD0). Phylogenetic analysis of plant ABCCs separates their protein sequences into three distinct clusters: I and II are plant specific whereas cluster III contains both human and plant ABCCs. Screening of the Plant Medicinal Genomics Resource database allowed us to identify 16 ABCCs partial sequences in Catharanthus roseus; two of which belong to the unique CrABCC1 transcript that we identified in cluster III. Genomic organization of CrABCC1 TMD0 coding sequence displays an AT-AC U12-type intron that is conserved in higher plant orthologues. We showed that CrABCC1, like its human orthologue ABCC10, produces alternative transcripts that encode protein sequences with a truncated form of TMD0 without the first transmembrane span (TM1). Subcellular localization of CrABCC1 TMD0 variants using yellow fluorescent protein fusions reveals that the TM1 is required for a correct routing of the TMD0 to the tonoplast. Finally, the specific repartition of CrABCC1 orthologues in some species suggests that this gene was lost several times during evolution and that its physiological function may, rely on a common feature of multicellular eukaryotes.