X-linked congenital stationary night blindness Totally Explained

Everything about X-linked Congenital Stationary Night Blindness totally explained

X-linked congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB) is a rare X-linked non-progressive retinal disorder. It has two forms, complete, also known as type-1 (CSNB1), and incomplete, also known as type-2 (CSNB2), depending on severity. In the complete form (CSNB1), there's no measurable rod cell response to light, whereas this response is measurable in the incomplete form. Patients with this disorder have difficulty adapting to low light situations due to impaired photoreceptor transmission. These patients also often have reduced visual acuity, myopia, nystagmus, and strabismus. CSNB1 is caused by mutations in the gene NYX, which encodes a protein involved in retinal synapse formation or synaptic transmission. CSNB2 is caused by mutations in the gene CACNA1F, which encodes a voltage-gated calcium channel Ca_V1.4.

Symptoms

The X-linked varieties of congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB) can be differentiated from the autosomal forms by the presence of myopia, which is typically absent in the autosomal forms. Patients with CSNB often have impaired night vision, myopia, reduced visual acuity, strabismus, and nystagmus. Individuals with the complete form of CSNB (CSNB1) have highly impaired rod sensitivity (reduced ~300x) as well as cone dysfunction. Patients with the incomplete form can present with either myopia or hyperopia.

Cause

CSNB was originally believed to be caused by malfunction in neurotransmission from rods to bipolar cells in the retina. This is due to electroretinogram (ERG) measurements on CSNB patients which show a drastic decrease in the size of the scotopic b-wave in comparison to the a-wave, in CSNB2, or a complete loss of both in CSNB1. The a-wave is believed to represent the response of rods to visual input and remains largely unchanged in CSNB2 patients. The b-wave, however, is believed to result from electrical activity of bipolar cells and is decreased or non-existent in both CSNB1 and 2. CSNB1 patients also show mildly altered cone activity. Further study has demonstrated that the defects found in CSNB patients are better explained by more general defects in both the rod and cone ON-signaling pathways.

Pathophysiology

CSNB1

The complete form of X-linked congenital stationary night blindness, also known as nyctalopia, is caused by mutations in the NYX (Nyctalopin on X-chromosome), which encodes a small leucine-rich repeat (LRR) family protein of unknown function. This protein consists of an N-terminal signal peptide and 11 LRRs (LRR1-11) flanked by cysteine-rich LRRs (LRRNT and LRRCT). At the C-terminus of the protein there's a putative GPI anchor site. Although the function of NYX is yet to be fully understood, it's believed to be located extracellularly. A naturally occurring deletion of 85 bases in NYX in some mice leads to the "nob" (no b-wave) phenotype, which is highly similar to that seen in CSNB1 patients. NYX is expressed primarily in the rod and cone cells of the retina. There are currently almost 40 known mutations in NYX associated with CSNB1, Table 1., located throughout the protein. As the function of the nyctalopin protein is unknown, these mutations have not been further characterized. However, many of them are predicted to lead to truncated proteins that, presumably, are non-functional.

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