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Mucopolysaccharidoses: Diagnosis, Treatment and Management 4.0

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2025 | Viewed by 2673

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu University, Gifu 501-1193, Japan
2. Nemours Children's Health, Wilmington, DE 19803, USA
3. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
4. Department of Pediatrics, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USA
Interests: skeletal dysplasia; inactive project newborn screening; targeting therapy
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Guest Editor
Depratment of Molecular Biology, University of Gdańsk, Wita Stwosza 59, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland
Interests: regulation of DNA replication; control of gene expression; oxidative stress in bacterial virulence; molecular mechanisms of mucopolysaccharidoses; development of novel therapeutic options
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are relatively frequent as a group among inborn errors of a metabolism, with an overall incidence estimated to be approximately 1 in 20,000–25,000 births. If the clinical signs and symptoms appear, the excessive excretion of urinary glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) observed in MPS patients will provide a simple screening method with the identification of the specific enzyme deficiency. The development of therapeutic options for MPS, including hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), has modified the natural history of many MPS types. In spite of the improvement in some tissues and organs, significant challenges remain unsolved, including the blood–brain barrier, brain and avascular cartilage, heart valves, and  cornea. More recent approaches, such as intrathecal ERT, ERT with fusion proteins to cross the blood–brain barrier, gene therapy, substrate reduction therapy, chaperone therapy, and combined strategies, may provide a better outcome for MPS in the near future.

Therapies should start at a very early stage prior to irreversible bone lesion, and damage due to the severity of CNS involvement and skeletal dysplasia is associated with the levels of activity in daily life. As early diagnosis and early treatment are imperative to improve therapeutic efficacy, the inclusion of MPS in newborn screening programs should reduce the morbidity associated with MPS diseases. Additionally, we will provide insights into primary storage materials on GAGs (“GAGnomics”), the measurement of GAGs, the pathogenesis pathway with the accumulation of GAGs, and GAGs’ role as a biomarker.

As volume 1, 2 and 3 of the Special Issue “Mucopolysaccharidoses: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management” proved successful, we have decided reopen this issue again in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms, ISSN 1422-0067, IF 5.924, JCR Category Q1). In this fourth Special Issue, we will summarize the diagnosis, treatment, and management of MPS, and will evaluate available treatments, such as ERT, HSCT, and future treatments including gene therapy, substrate reduction therapy, and chaperon therapy, in addition to describing their advantages and disadvantages. We will also assess the current clinical endpoints and biomarkers used in clinical trials.

Overall, this Special Issue illustrates an up-to-date overview of pathogenesis, diagnosis, biomarker, screening, and updated therapies, and their impact in MPS. It comprehensively covers many areas in the MPS field and appeals to a broad range of readers including physicians, scientists, students, pharmaceutical companies, and MPS communities.

Dr. Shunji Tomatsu
Prof. Dr. Grzegorz Wegrzyn
Prof. Dr. Roberto Giugliani
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • mucopolysaccharidoses
  • glycosaminoglycans
  • proteoglycans
  • lysosomal dysfunction
  • cell function
  • metabolic disease

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 3730 KiB  
Article
Bone Growth Induction in Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA Mouse
by Estera Rintz, Angélica María Herreño-Pachón, Betul Celik, Fnu Nidhi, Shaukat Khan, Eliana Benincore-Flórez and Shunji Tomatsu
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(12), 9890; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24129890 - 8 Jun 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1937
Abstract
Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA (MPS IVA; Morquio A syndrome) is caused by a deficiency of the N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate-sulfatase (GALNS) enzyme, leading to the accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAG), keratan sulfate (KS) and chondroitin-6-sulfate (C6S), mainly in cartilage and bone. This lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) is characterized by [...] Read more.
Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA (MPS IVA; Morquio A syndrome) is caused by a deficiency of the N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate-sulfatase (GALNS) enzyme, leading to the accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAG), keratan sulfate (KS) and chondroitin-6-sulfate (C6S), mainly in cartilage and bone. This lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) is characterized by severe systemic skeletal dysplasia. To this date, none of the treatment options for the MPS IVA patients correct bone pathology. Enzyme replacement therapy with elosulfase alpha provides a limited impact on bone growth and skeletal lesions in MPS IVA patients. To improve bone pathology, we propose a novel gene therapy with a small peptide as a growth-promoting agent for MPS IVA. A small molecule in this peptide family has been found to exert biological actions over the cardiovascular system. This work shows that an AAV vector expressing a C-type natriuretic (CNP) peptide induces bone growth in the MPS IVA mouse model. Histopathological analysis showed the induction of chondrocyte proliferation. CNP peptide also changed the pattern of GAG levels in bone and liver. These results suggest the potential for CNP peptide to be used as a treatment in MPS IVA patients. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mucopolysaccharidoses: Diagnosis, Treatment and Management 4.0)
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