The Frequency and Clinical Impact of Synonymous HTT Loss-of-Interruption and Duplication-of-interruption Variants in a Diverse HD Cohort.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To determine the frequency and clinical impact of loss-of-interruption (LOI) and duplication-of-interruption (DOI) modifier variants of the HTT CAG and CCG repeat in a cohort of individuals with Huntington disease (HD). METHODS: We screened symptomatic HD participants from the UBC HD Biobank and five research sites for sequence variants. Following variant identification, we examined the clinical impact and frequency in the reduced penetrance range. RESULTS: Participants with CAG-CCG LOI and CCG LOI variants have a similar magnitude of earlier onset of HD, by 12.5 years. The sequence variants exhibit ancestry-specific differences. Participants with the CAG-CCG LOI variant also have a faster progression of TMS by 1.9 units per year. Symptomatic participants with the CAG-CCG LOI variant show enrichment in the reduced penetrance range. The CAG-CCG LOI variant explains the onset of two symptomatic HD participants with diagnostic repeats below the pathogenetic range. CONCLUSION: Our findings have significant clinical implications for participants with the CAG-CCG LOI variant who receive inaccurate diagnoses near diagnostic cut-off ranges. Improved diagnostic testing approaches and clinical management are needed for these individuals. We present the largest and most diverse HTT CAG and CCG sequence variant cohort and emphasize their importance in clinical presentation in HD.