Low-level APC mutational mosaicism is the underlying cause in a substantial fraction of unexplained colorectal adenomatous polyposis cases

Spier, Isabel; Drichel, Dmitriy; Kerick, Martin; Kirfel, Jutta; Horpaopan, Sukanya; Laner, Andreas; Holzapfel, Stefanie; Peters, Sophia; Adam, Ronja; Zhao, Bixiao; Becker, Tim; Lifton, Richard P.; Perner, Sven; Hoffmann, Per; Kristiansen, Glen; Timmermann, Bernd; Nöthen, Markus M.; Holinski-Feder, Elke; Schweiger, Michal R. und Aretz, Stefan (2016): Low-level APC mutational mosaicism is the underlying cause in a substantial fraction of unexplained colorectal adenomatous polyposis cases. In: Journal of Medical Genetics, Vol. 53, No. 3: pp. 172-179

Abstract

Background In 30-50% of patients with colorectal adenomatous polyposis, no germline mutation in the known genes APC, causing familial adenomatous polyposis, MUTYH, causing MUTYH-associated polyposis, or POLE or POLD1, causing polymerase-proofreading-associated polyposis can be identified, although a hereditary aetiology is likely. This study aimed to explore the impact of APC mutational mosaicism in unexplained polyposis. Methods To comprehensively screen for somatic low-level APC mosaicism, high-coverage next-generation sequencing of the APC gene was performed using DNA from leucocytes and a total of 53 colorectal tumours from 20 unrelated patients with unexplained sporadic adenomatous polyposis. APC mosaicism was assumed if the same loss-of-function APC mutation was present in 2 anatomically separated colorectal adenomas/carcinomas per patient. All mutations were validated using diverse methods. Results In 25% (5/20) of patients, somatic mosaicism of a pathogenic APC mutation was identified as underlying cause of the disease. In 2/5 cases, the mosaic level in leucocyte DNA was slightly below the sensitivity threshold of Sanger sequencing;while in 3/5 cases, the allelic fraction was either very low (0.1-1%) or no mutations were detectable. The majority of mosaic mutations were located outside the somatic mutation cluster region of the gene. Conclusions The present data indicate a high prevalence of pathogenic mosaic APC mutations below the detection thresholds of routine diagnostics in adenomatous polyposis, even if high-coverage sequencing of leucocyte DNA alone is taken into account. This has important implications for both routine work-up and strategies to identify new causative genes in this patient group.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Medicine
• Subjects: 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health
• ISSN: 0022-2593
• Alliance/National Licence: This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
• Language: English