View clinical trials related to Mitochondrial Disease.
Filter by:The purpose of the study is to investigate possible causes for Gulf War Syndrome. Gulf War Syndrome is associated with increased incidences of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease), pain syndromes, muscle complaints that include fatigue and myalgias (muscle pain), as well as other neurological symptoms. Abnormalities in the part of the cell known as mitochondria have been delineated in Gulf War Syndrome. Mitochondria are the "power plants" of the body. Mitochondria take the food you eat and break the food down into a form of energy that the body can use. The investigators propose that Gulf War Syndrome is determined by a complex interaction of factors that interfere with mitochondrial function. This study will be the first investigation of mitochondrial function in Gulf War Syndrome. The investigators objective is to establish the cause for symptoms in affected veterans, develop testing that can more easily identify Gulf War Syndrome, and ultimately develop treatment protocols for Gulf War Syndrome.
Mitochondrial diseases are the most frequent metabolic diseases (2.5 persons among 10 000) and are clinically heterogeneous making diagnosis particularly challenging for clinicians. Molecular analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a critical step in diagnosis and genetic counselling of respiratory chain defects. DNA sequencing remains the gold standard but it is time-consuming and fails to detect mutations that may be present at a low heteroplasmic level (20% or below); therefore the diagnosis is yet based on the detection of a few number of pathogenic mutations. The present study aims to evaluate the benefit and the cost of a diagnosis strategy based on the combined use of 2 techniques named "Surveyor Nuclease" and "Mitochip". Surveyor nuclease is a mismatch-specific DNA endonuclease that will be used for screening the entire mtDNA in order to identify heteroplasmic mutations. In absence of any identified mutation, another technique based on the use an oligonucleotide sequencing microarray (MitoChip) will be performed for the identification of homoplasmic mutations. Mitochip is an array-based sequencing platform for rapid and high-throughput analysis of mitochondrial DNA. The economical study will compare the cost of these techniques to the standard diagnosis method in term of direct and indirect costs
The objective of this research protocol is to continue investigation of the nature and prevalence of mitochondria disease and to aid patients and health care providers in the understanding of these complex disorders. This research study brings together many clinical sub-specialists to address the etiology of these disorders and to develop more effective approaches for their diagnoses and more reliable prognoses.