Neurolymphomatosis (NL) is a rare disease characterized by lymphomatous invasion of the cranial or peripheral nerves by lymphoma. A high suspicion is important due to the various presenting symptoms mandating consideration of many differential diagnoses. We report a case of NL of the cranial nerves and plexus presenting as diplopia, facial palsy, and weakness of the upper and lower limbs in sequence.
To demonstrate that hypolipidemia is a typical feature of the mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and to assess the association between hypolipidemia and disease stage, dietary intake, and sex.We compared daily dietary intake, body weight, and serumlipid and glucose levels in ALS mice and wild-type controls at different stages of the disease.Total cholesterol low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and LDL/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) ratio were significantly lower in ALS mice compared with controls. Subgroup analysis revealed that the incidence of hypolipidemia was significantly greater in male, but not female, ALS mice compared with control mice and that hypolipidemia was present at the presymptomatic stage of the disease. This hypolipidemia can be found without a decrease in the serum levels of other energy sources, such as glucose, in the presymptomatic stage.Hypolipidemia is present at the presymptomatic stage of the ALS mouse model in the absence of malnutrition, significant neuromuscular degeneration or regeneration, and respiratory difficulty. Our findings suggest that hypolipidemia might be associated with the pathomechanism of ALS and/or lipid-specific metabolism rather than simply an epiphenomenon of neuromuscular degeneration or energy imbalance.
Interactions between protein aggregates and a cellular membrane have been strongly implicated in many protein conformational diseases. However, such interactions for the case of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) protein, which is related to fatal neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), have not been explored yet. For the first time, we report the direct observation of defect formation and increased ion permeability of a membrane induced by SOD1 aggregates using a supported lipid bilayer and membrane patches of human embryonic kidney cells as model membranes. We observed that aggregated SOD1 significantly induced the formation of defects within lipid membranes and caused the perturbation of membrane permeability, based on surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and electrophysiology. In the case of apo SOD1 with an unfolded structure, we found that it bound to the lipid membrane surface and slightly perturbed membrane permeability, compared to other folded proteins (holo SOD1 and bovine serum albumin). The changes in membrane integrity and permeability were found to be strongly dependent on the type of proteins and the amount of aggregates present. We expect that the findings presented herein will advance our understanding of the pathway by which structurally disordered SOD1 aggregates exert toxicity in vivo.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Despite the crucial role of aberrant immune responses in ALS pathogenesis, studies investigating immunological profiles in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with ALS have reported inconsistent findings. Herein, we explored the intrathecal adaptive immune response and features of circulating T cells between CSF and blood of patients with ALS using single-cell RNA and T-cell receptor (TCR) sequencing. This study comprised a total of 11 patients with apparently sporadic ALS and three controls with non-inflammatory diseases. We collected CSF from all participants, and for three patients with ALS, we additionally obtained paired samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Utilizing droplet-based single-cell RNA and TCR sequencing, we analysed immunological profiles, gene expression characteristics and clonality. Furthermore, we examined T-cell characteristics in both PBMC and CSF samples, evaluating the shared T-cell clones across these compartments. In the CSF, patients with ALS exhibited a lower proportion of CD4