Gaucher disease: single gene molecular characterization of one-hundred Indian patients reveals novel variants and the most prevalent mutation.

BACKGROUND: Gaucher disease is a rare pan-ethnic, lysosomal storage disorder resulting due to beta-Glucosidase (GBA1) gene defect. This leads to the glucocerebrosidase enzyme deficiency and an increased accumulation of undegraded glycolipid glucocerebroside inside the cells' lysosomes. To date, nearly 460 mutations have been described in the GBA1 gene. With the aim to determine mutations spectrum and molecular pathology of Gaucher disease in India, the present study investigated one hundred unrelated patients (age range: 1 day to 31 years) having splenomegaly, with or without hepatomegaly, cytopenia and bone abnormality in some of the patients. METHODS: The biochemical investigation for the plasma chitotriosidase enzyme activity and ß-Glucosidase enzyme activity confirmed the Gaucher disease. The mutations were identified by screening the patients' whole GBA gene coding region using bidirectional Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: The biochemical analysis revealed a significant reduction in the ß-Glucosidase activity in all patients. Sanger sequencing established 71 patients with homozygous mutation and 22 patients with compound heterozygous mutation in GBA1 gene. Lack of identification of mutations in three patients suggests the possibility of either large deletion/duplication or deep intronic variations in the GBA1 gene. In four cases, where the proband died due to confirmed Gaucher disease, the parents were found to be a carrier. Overall, the study identified 33 mutations in 100 patients that also covers four missense mutations (p.Ser136Leu, p.Leu279Val, p.Gly383Asp, p.Gly399Arg) not previously reported in Gaucher disease patients. The mutation p.Leu483Pro was identified as the most commonly occurring Gaucher disease mutation in the study (62% patients). The second common mutations identified were p.Arg535Cys (7% patients) and RecNcil (7% patients). Another complex mutation Complex C was identified in a compound heterozygous status (3% patients). The homology modeling of the novel mutations suggested the destabilization of the GBA protein structure due to conformational changes. CONCLUSIONS: The study reports four novel and 29 known mutations identified in the GBA1 gene in one-hundred Gaucher patients. The given study establishes p.Leu483Pro as the most prevalent mutation in the Indian patients with type 1 Gaucher disease that provide new insight into the molecular basis of Gaucher Disease in India.

A case of Raine syndrome presenting with facial dysmorphy and review of literature.

BACKGROUND: Raine syndrome (RS) - an extremely rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder, is caused by a biallelic mutation in the FAM20C gene. Some of the most common clinical features include generalized osteosclerosis with a periosteal bone formation, dysmorphic face, and thoracic hypoplasia. Many cases have also been reported with oro-dental abnormalities, and developmental delay. Most of the cases result in neonatal death. However, a few non-lethal RS cases have been reported where patients survive till adulthood and exhibits a heterogeneous clinical phenotype. Clinical diagnosis of RS has been done through facial appearance and radiological findings, while confirmatory diagnosis has been conducted through a molecular study of the FAM20C gene. CASE PRESENTATION: A 6-year-old girl was born to healthy third degree consanguineous parents. She presented with facial dysmorphy, delayed speech, and delayed cognition. Radiography showed small sclerotic areas in the lower part of the right femur, and an abnormally-shaped skull with minimal sclerosis in the lower occipital region. Computer tomography scan of the brain revealed mild cortical atrophy, and MRI scan of the brain showed corpus callosal dysgenesis with the absence of the rostral area. Chromosome banding at 500 band resolution showed a normal female karyotype. No quantitative genomic imbalance was detected by aCGH. Further study conducted using Clinical Exome Sequencing identified a homozygous missense variation c.1228 T > A (p.Ser410Thr) in the exon 6 of FAM20C gene - a likely pathogenic variant that confirmed the clinical diagnosis of RS. The variant was confirmed in the proband and her parents using Sanger sequencing. Prenatal diagnosis during subsequent pregnancy revealed heterozygous status of the fetus, and a normal carrier child was delivered at term. CONCLUSIONS: The syndrome revealed markedly variable presentations such as facial dysmorphy and developmental delay, and was localized to diffuse bone osteosclerosis. Clinical indications, striking radiological findings and molecular testing of FAM20C gene confirmed the diagnosis of RS. A rarity of the disorder and inconsistent phenotype hindered the establishment of genotype-phenotype correlations in RS. Therefore, reporting more cases and conducting further research would be crucial in defining the variable radiologic and molecular defects of the lethal and non-lethal forms of this syndrome.

Biochemical and molecular characterization of adult patients with type I Gaucher disease and carrier frequency analysis of Leu444Pro - a common Gaucher disease mutation in India.

BACKGROUND: Gaucher disease is a rare pan-ethnic disorder which occurs due to an increased accumulation of undegraded glycolipid glucocerebroside inside the cells' lysosomes. A beta-Glucosidase (GBA) gene defect results in glucocerebrosidase enzyme deficiency. Though the disease is mainly diagnosed in childhood, the adult manifestation is often missed or identified late due to the failure to recognize the heterogeneous clinical presentation. The present study includes seven unrelated Indian adult patients (age range: 20-40 years) having splenomegaly, with or without hepatomegaly, cytopenia and bone abnormality. METHODS: The biochemical investigation implicated measuring plasma chitotriosidase enzyme activity followed by confirmatory test of ß-Glucosidase enzyme activity from the leukocytes. The molecular characterization involved patients' initial screening for the common Gaucher mutation (Leu444Pro). Later, all patients were subjected to whole GBA gene coding region study using bidirectional Sanger sequencing. The population screening for common Gaucher disease mutation (Leu444Pro) was executed in 1200 unrelated and healthy Indian subjects by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism-Polymerase Chain Reaction technique. The allele frequency was calculated using Hardy-Weinberg formula. RESULTS: The biochemical analysis revealed a significant reduction in the ß-Glucosidase activity in all the patients. Also, an elevated level of plasma Chitotriosidase activity in five patients supported their diagnosis of Gaucher disease. Sanger sequencing established four patients with homozygous variation and three patients with compound heterozygous variation in GBA gene. This study uncovers two missense variants (Ala448Thr and Val17Gly) not previously reported in Gaucher disease patients. Also the known mutations like Leu444Pro, Arg329Cys, Asp315Asn, Ser125Arg, and Arg395Cys were identified in these patients. The homology modeling suggested the destabilization of the protein structure due to novel variants. The Leu444Pro mutation screening in the Indian population spotted two people as a carrier. This emerged the carrier frequency of 1:600 along with wild-type allele frequency 0.97113 and mutant allele frequency 0.02887. CONCLUSIONS: The study reports novel and known variants identified in the GBA gene in seven adult patients. The given study is the first report on the carrier frequency of the Leu444Pro mutant allele in an Indian population which will help understanding the burden and susceptibility of Gaucher disease to affect next generation in India.

Batten disease: biochemical and molecular characterization revealing novel PPT1 and TPP1 gene mutations in Indian patients.

BACKGROUND: Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses type I and type II (NCL1 and NCL2) also known as Batten disease are the commonly observed neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder caused by mutations in the PPT1 and TPP1 genes respectively. Till date, nearly 76 mutations in PPT1 and approximately 140 mutations, including large deletion/duplications, in TPP1 genes have been reported in the literature. The present study includes 34 unrelated Indian patients (12 females and 22 males) having epilepsy, visual impairment, cerebral atrophy, and cerebellar atrophy. METHODS: The biochemical investigation involved measuring the palmitoyl protein thioesterase 1 and tripeptidy peptidase l enzyme activity from the leukocytes. Based on the biochemical analysis all patients were screened for variations in either PPT1 gene or TPP1 gene using bidirectional Sanger sequencing. In cases where Sanger sequencing results was uninformative Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification technique was employed. The online tools performed the protein homology modeling and orthologous conservation of the novel variants. RESULTS: Out of 34 patients analyzed, the biochemical assay confirmed 12 patients with NCL1 and 22 patients with NCL2. Molecular analysis of PPT1 gene in NCL1 patients revealed three known mutations (p.Val181Met, p.Asn110Ser, and p.Trp186Ter) and four novel variants (p.Glu178Asnfs*13, p.Pro238Leu, p.Cys45Arg, and p.Val236Gly). In the case of NCL2 patients, the TPP1 gene analysis identified seven known mutations and eight novel variants. Overall these 15 variants comprised seven missense variants (p.Met345Leu, p.Arg339Trp, p.Arg339Gln, p.Arg206Cys, p.Asn286Ser, p.Arg152Ser, p.Tyr459Ser), four frameshift variants (p.Ser62Argfs*19, p.Ser153Profs*19, p.Phe230Serfs*28, p.Ile484Aspfs*7), three nonsense variants (p.Phe516*, p.Arg208*, p.Tyr157*) and one intronic variant (g.2023_2024insT). No large deletion/duplication was identified in three NCL1 patients where Sanger sequencing study was normal. CONCLUSION: The given study reports 34 patients with Batten disease. In addition, the study contributes four novel variants to the spectrum of PPT1 gene mutations and eight novel variants to the TPP1 gene mutation data. The novel pathogenic variant p.Pro238Leu occurred most commonly in the NCL1 cohort while the occurrence of a known pathogenic mutation p.Arg206Cys dominated in the NCL2 cohort. This study provides an insight into the molecular pathology of NCL1 and NCL2 disease for Indian origin patients.

Assessing Utility of Clinical Exome Sequencing in Diagnosis of Rare Idiopathic Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Indian Population.

BACKGROUND: Neurological diseases are phenotypically and genotypically heterogeneous. Clinical exome sequencing (CES) has been shown to provide a high diagnostic yield for these disorders in the European population but remains to be demonstrated for the Indian population. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to understand the utility of clinical exome sequencing for the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cohort of 19 idiopathic patients with neurological phenotypes, primarily intellectual disability and developmental delay, were recruited. CES covering 4620 genes was performed on all patients. Candidate variants were validated by Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: CES in 19 patients provided identified 21 variants across 16 genes which have been associated with different neurological disorders. Fifteen variants were reported previously and 6 variants were novel to our study. Eleven patients were diagnosed with autosomal dominant de novo variants, 7 with autosomal recessive and 1 with X-linked recessive variants. CES provided definitive diagnosis to 10 patients; hence, the diagnostic yield was 53%. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that the diagnostic yield of CES in the Indian population is comparable to that reported in the European population. CES together with deep phenotyping could be a cost-effective way of diagnosing rare neurological disorders in the Indian population.