Abstract
Menkes disease is an X-linked disorder of copper metabolism caused by mutations in the ATP7A gene. Whereas most of the patients exhibit a severe classical form, about 9% of the patients exhibit a milder form of Menkes disease. The mildest form is called occipital horn syndrome (OHS). Mutations in the ATP7A gene can be identified in 95–98% of the Menkes disease patients by standard screening techniques. Investigation of RNA isolated from the fibroblasts of eleven patients with no identified mutations was performed, and revealed inclusion of new pseudo-exons into the ATP7A mRNA from three unrelated patients: two patients with OHS and one patient with classical Menkes disease. The pseudo-exons were inserted between exons 10 and 11, between exons 16 and 17 and between exons 14 and 15 in the three patients, as a result of deep intronic mutations. This is the first time the activation of pseudo-exons is demonstrated in the ATP7A gene, and it demonstrates the usefulness of RNA analysis, in terms of revealing disease-causing mutations in noncoding regions. The fact that three different mutations cause disease by the activation of pseudo-exon inclusion also indicates that in Menkes disease this is an important mechanism, which has hitherto been overlooked.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Menkes families for participating in this investigation. Written informed consent is obtained from the relatives of the three patients. We would like to thank Gabriela Soares, Unidade Genética Médica, CGMJM, Praça Pedro Nunes, 88, 4099-028, Porto, Portugal for collaboration. We are also very grateful to Jette Rune Rasmussen for assistance with generating the figure and to Brage Storstein Andresen for critical review of this manuscript. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Lundbeck Foundation.
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Yasmeen, S., Lund, K., De Paepe, A. et al. Occipital horn syndrome and classical Menkes Syndrome caused by deep intronic mutations, leading to the activation of ATP7A pseudo-exon. Eur J Hum Genet 22, 517–521 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2013.191
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2013.191
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