Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is a very rare autosomal dominant inherited disease of the brain. The gene responsible is carried in just 28 families worldwide; even if only one parent had the gene, the offspring have at best a 50:50 chance of inheriting it and developing the disease. The disease's genesis and the patient's progression into complete sleeplessness is untreatable, and ultimately fatal.

It was first detected by an Italian doctor in 1979, who discovered two women from one family who apparently died of insomnia. Family records showed a history of seemingly related deaths. When another member of the family fell ill in 1984, his deterioration was studied and after his death, his brain was flown to the U.S. for further investigation.

In the late 1990s, researchers discovered that the disease is caused by a mutation in a protein called a prion protein (PrP): asparagine-178 is replaced by aspartic acid. The mutation changes the shape of the protein so that it becomes a prion and makes other, normal protein molecules change to the abnormal shape.

This causes plaques to develop in the thalamus, the region of the brain responsible for regulation of sleep. This first results in insomnia, and then progresses to more serious problems over time.

The age of onset is variable, ranging from 30 to 60, with an average of 50. Death usually occurs between 7 to 36 months from onset. The presentation of the disease varies considerably from person to person, even among patients from within the same family.

The disease has four stages, taking 7 to 18 months to run its course:

1. The patient suffers increasing insomnia, resulting in panic attacks and phobias. This stage lasts about four months.
2. Hallucinations and panic attacks become noticeable, continuing about five months.
3. Complete inability to sleep is followed by rapid loss of weight. This lasts about three months.
4. Dementia, turning unresponsive or mute over the course of six months. This is the final progression of the disease, and the patient will subsequently die.

There is no cure or treatment for FFI; hopes rest on the so far unsuccessful gene therapy. Sleeping pills have no effect.

There are other "prion diseases" (TSEs) with different symptoms, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and a new variant CJD (vCJD) in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as "mad cow disease") in cows, and chronic wasting disease in American deer and American elk (in some areas of the Rocky Mountains).

References

• Case study

External links

• Family battles fatal insomnia
• AFIFF - Associazione Familiari Insonnia Familiare Fatale malattie da prioni (English language version)

Neurology | Prions | Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies | Sleep disorders

Tödliche familiäre Schlaflosigkeit | Insomnio familiar fatal | Fatale familiale insomnia | 致死性家族性不眠症 | Фатальная семейная бессонница