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Phenylketonuria (PAA)

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Introduction
Phenylketonuria (PKU, OMIM 261600) is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder primarily caused by a deficiency of the hepatic phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH, EC 1.14.16.1) enzyme responsible for converting phenylalanine (Phe) to tyrosine in the presence of cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) and molecular oxygen. (Viecelli et al 2014) Definitive characteristic of the disease is the impaired postnatal cognitive development resulting from a neurotoxic effect of phenylalanine accumulation also known as hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA) (Scriver 2007). The disease is caused primarily by mutations in the phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) gene, encoding for (PAH) enzyme. Phenylalanine hydroxylase converts L-phenylalanine (Phe) to L-tyrosine …show more content…

Patients with moderate PKU typically do not require very strict dietary restriction due to some presence of PAH enzyme; iii). Variant PKU (serum phenylalanine is about 12-16 mg/dl) which has phenotypic variability due to allelic variation at the PAH locus. The individuals with variant PKU need to be under diet with low phenylalanine, but less strict than the classic one. (Fazeli et al …show more content…

Proximal region of the PAH promoter contains necessary and important cis-elements for its tissue-specific expression. During embryonic development, transcription of the PAH gene and its expression begins at a very early stage in human. Whereas in rats and mice, it begins as late as 2-3 days before birth. Mutations in the PAH gene result in the deficiency of phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) enzyme, a main characteristic of PKU). More than 500 different PAH mutations have been identified in the PAH gene (Fazeli et al 2011) making it difficult to come up with a universal treatment for the

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