Megalencephaly (or macrencephaly; abbreviated MEG) is a growth development disorder in which the brain is abnormally large. It is characterized by a brain with an average weight that is 2.5 standard deviations above the mean of the general population. Approximately 1 out of 50 children (2%) are said to have the characteristics of megalencephaly in the general population.A mutation in the PI3K-AKT pathway is believed to be the primary cause of brain proliferation and ultimately the root cause of megalencephaly. This mutation has produced a classification of brain overdevelopment that consists of two syndromes including megalencephaly-capillary malformation (MCAP) and megalencephaly-polydactyly-polymicrogyria-hydrocephalus (MPPH). Megalencephaly is usually diagnosed at birth and is confirmed with an MRI. There are several neuropsychiatric disorders linked with megalencephaly; however, studies have shown that autism is the most prevalent association with the malformation of MEG. Although no treatment currently exists for megalencephaly, management methods are focused at reducing deficits linked with autism. Most recent research is targeted at creating inhibitors to reduce the mutational pathway that causes megalencephaly. Classification
Macrocephaly
Macrocephaly is a term used to refer to a person who has an abnormally large head. The circumference of the head must be above the 95th percentile or at least 2.5 standard deviations from the mean of normal weight and gender groups in the United States. A person with macrocephaly does not necessarily indicate that megalencephaly is also present. Large skulls usually exhibit no neurodevelopment conditions at all, meaning most individuals with macrocephaly are healthy.
Deficiency
A deficiency of porphobilinogen synthase is usually acquired (rather than hereditary) and can be caused by heavy metal poisoning, especially lead poisoning, as the enzyme is very susceptible to inhibition by heavy metals.Hereditary insufficiency of porphobilinogen synthase is called porphobilinogen synthase (or ALA dehydratase) deficiency poprhyria. It is an extremely rare cause of porphyria, with less than 10 cases ever reported. All disease associated protein variants favor hexamer formation relative to the wild type human enzyme. PBGS as the prototype morpheein
The morpheein model of allostery exemplified by PBGS adds an additional layer of understanding to potential mechanisms for regulation of protein function and complements the increased focus that the protein science community is placing on protein structure dynamics.This model illustrates how the dynamics of phenomena such as alternate protein conformations, alternate oligomeric states, and transient protein-protein interactions can be harnessed for allosteric regulation of catalytic activity. References
External links
Human ALAD genome location and ALAD gene details page  in the UCSC Genome Browser. delta-Aminolevulinic+Acid+Dehydratase at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
http://www.omim.org/entry/125270?search=pbgs&highlight=pbgs


== Further reading ==