Sandhoff disease is a neurodegenerative disorder resulting from the autosomal recessive inheritance of mutations in the HEXB gene, which encodes the beta-subunit of beta-hexosaminidase. GM2 ganglioside fails to be degraded and accumulates within lysosomes in cells of the periphery and the central nervous system (CNS). There are currently no therapies for the glycosphingolipid lysosomal storage ...

This book is a compilation of an international symposium held in South Carolina in March 1979. It reviews the progress made during the past two decades concerning attempts at therapy of the genetic disorders which result in abnormal lysosomal enzyme metabolism. Despite the narrowness of the subject the variety of information is quite large. The first section is devoted to a discussion of enzyme...

Many lysosomal storage diseases are characterized by an increased urinary excretion of glycoconjugates and oligosaccharides that are characteristic for the underlying enzymatic defect. Here, we have used capillary high-performance anion-exchange chromatography (HPAEC) hyphenated to mass spectrometry to analyze free oligosaccharides from urine samples of patients suffering from the lysosomal sto...

Lysosomes are acidic compartments filled with more than 60 different types of hydrolases. They mediate the degradation of extracellular particles from endocytosis and of intracellular components from autophagy. The digested products are transported out of the lysosome via specific catabolite exporters or via vesicular membrane trafficking. Lysosomes also contain more than 50 membrane proteins a...

Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPSs) are lysosomal storage diseases caused by a deficit in the enzymes needed for glycosaminoglycan (GAG) degradation. Enzyme replacement therapy with recombinant human alpha-L-iduronidase successfully reduces lysosomal storage in canines and humans with iduronidase-deficient MPS I, but therapy usually also induces antibodies specific for the recombinant enzyme that coul...

Neurodegenerative diseases characterized by aberrant accumulation of undigested cellular components represent unmet medical conditions for which the identification of actionable targets is urgently needed. Here we identify a pharmacologically actionable pathway that controls cellular clearance via Akt modulation of transcription factor EB (TFEB), a master regulator of lysosomal pathways. We sho...

Introduction: The success of the first enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for a lysosomal storage disease (LSD) and the regulatory and commercial incentives provided by authorities for orphan and rare diseases has spawned a massive interest for developing drugs for these intriguing but devastating genetic disorders. The potential for new drugs in this arena is vast, as not only a high number of L...

Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for the lysosomal storage disease mucopolysaccharidosis I (MPS I) involves i.v. injection of alpha-l-iduronidase, which can be taken up by cells throughout the body. While a significant immune response to ERT has been shown in patients with MPS I, little is known about what effect anti-enzyme antibodies have on treatment efficacy. In this issue of the JCI, Dicks...