BACKGROUND Mutations in the spatacsin gene are associated with spastic paraplegia type 11 (SPG11), which is the most-common cause of autosomal recessive hereditary spastic paraplegia. Although SPG11 has diverse phenotypes, thinning of the corpus callosum is an important feature. CASE REPORT Clinical, genetic, and radiological evaluations were undertaken in a large family from Gujarat in North...

Expansions of simple DNA repeats cause numerous hereditary diseases in humans. We analyzed the role of DNA polymerases in the instability of Friedreich's ataxia (GAA)(n) repeats in a yeast experimental system. The elementary step of expansion corresponded to ~160 bp in the wild-type strain, matching the size of Okazaki fragments in yeast. This step increased when DNA polymerase α was mutated, s...

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is the third most common cause of cancer-related death in the United States and the 12th most common worldwide. Mortality is high, largely due to late stage of presentation and suboptimal treatment regimens. Approximately 10% of PC cases have a familial basis. The major genetic defect has yet to be identified but may be inherited by an autosomal dominant pattern with redu...

BACKGROUND Prenatal diagnosis of congenital and hereditary diseases is a priority for the development of medical technologies in Russia. However, there are not many published research results on bioethical issues of prenatal DNA testing. OBJECTIVE The main goal of the article is to describe some of the bioethical aspects of prenatal DNA diagnosis of hereditary diseases with late onset in gene...