JAMA neurology
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Review
Translational research in acute central nervous system injury: lessons learned and the future.
Research to improve outcomes from acute central nervous system (CNS) injury has progressed little, although limited examples (eg, induced hypothermia for out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest and birth asphyxia and tissue plasminogen activator for ischemic stroke) have proved that it is possible to favorably alter outcome. ⋯ Current knowledge of acute CNS injury dictates that therapeutic discovery and translation apply known tenets of sound experimental design and emulation of the clinical disorder targeted for therapeutic intervention. Peer-review systems must demand these qualities in proposed and published research to assess validity and potential for clinical translation.
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Review
IgG4-related hypertrophic pachymeningitis: clinical features, diagnostic criteria, and treatment.
IgG4-related hypertrophic pachymeningitis (IgG4-RHP) is an increasingly recognized manifestation of IgG4-related disease, a fibroinflammatory condition that can affect virtually any organ. It is estimated that IgG4-RHP may account for a high proportion of cases of hypertrophic pachymeningitis once considered idiopathic. ⋯ IgG4-related disease accounts for an increasing proportion of cases of idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis. Clinicians should become familiar with this alternative differential diagnosis because a prompt, specific therapeutic approach may avoid long-term neurological complications.
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Peripheral neuropathic pain, typified by the development of spontaneous pain or pain hypersensitivity following injury to the peripheral nervous system, is common, greatly impairs quality of life, and is inadequately treated with available drugs. Maladaptive changes in chloride homeostasis due to a decrease in the functional expression of the potassium-chloride cotransporter KCC2 in spinal cord dorsal horn neurons are a major contributor to the central disinhibition of γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptor- and glycine receptor-mediated signaling that characterizes neuropathic pain. ⋯ We review the data on which this theory of alternative analgesia is based, discuss recent high-throughput screens that have searched for small-molecule activators of KCC2, and propose other strategies of KCC2 activation based on recent developments in the basic understanding of KCC2's functional regulation. Exploiting the chloride-dependent functional plasticity of the γ-aminobutyric acid and glycinergic system by targeting KCC2 may be a tenable method of restoring ionotropic inhibition not only in neuropathic pain but also in other "hyperexcitable" diseases of the nervous system such as seizures and spasticity.
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Review Case Reports
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for genetic prion disorder due to F198S mutation in the PRNP gene.
To describe the first case of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) performed for the prevention of genetic prion disease in the children of a 27-year-old asymptomatic woman with a family history of Gerstmann-Sträussler-Sheinker syndrome (GSS). ⋯ IVF with PGD is a viable option for couples who wish to avoid passing the disease to their offspring. Neurologists should be aware of PGD to be able to better consult at-risk families on their reproductive choices.