The genetic landscape of axonal neuropathies in the middle-aged and elderly Focus on MME

Senderek, Jan; Lassuthova, Petra; Kabzinska, Dagmara; Abreu, Lisa; Baets, Jonathan; Beetz, Christian; Braathen, Geir J.; Brenner, David; Dalton, Joline; Dankwa, Lois; Deconinck, Tine; De Jonghe, Peter; Draeger, Bianca; Eggermann, Katja; Ellis, Melina; Fischer, Carina; Stojkovic, Tanya; Herrmann, David N.; Horvath, Rita; Hoyer, Helle; Iglseder, Stephan; Kennerson, Marina; Kinslechner, Katharina; Kohler, Jennefer N.; Kurth, Ingo; Laing, Nigel G.; Lamont, Phillipa J.; Loescher, Wolfgang N.; Ludolph, Albert; Marques, Wilson; Nicholson, Garth; Ong, Royston; Petri, Susanne; Ravenscroft, Gianina; Rebelo, Adriana; Ricci, Giulia; Rudnik-Schoeneborn, Sabine; Schirmacher, Anja; Schlotter-Weigel, Beate; Schoels, Ludger; Schuele, Rebecca; Synofzik, Matthis; Francou, Bruno; Strom, Tim M.; Wagner, Johannes; Walk, David; Wanschitz, Julia; Weinmann, Daniela; Weishaupt, Jochen; Wiessner, Manuela; Windhager, Reinhard; Young, Peter; Zuechner, Stephan; Toegel, Stefan; Seeman, Pavel; Kochanski, Andrzej und Auer-Grumbach, Michaela (2020): The genetic landscape of axonal neuropathies in the middle-aged and elderly Focus on MME. In: Neurology, Bd. 95, Nr. 24, E3163-E3179

Abstract

Objective: To test the hypothesis that monogenic neuropathies such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) contribute to frequent but often unexplained neuropathies in the elderly, we performed genetic analysis of 230 patients with unexplained axonal neuropathies and disease onset >= 35 years. Methods We recruited patients, collected clinical data, and conducted whole-exome sequencing (WES;n = 126) and MME single-gene sequencing (n = 104). We further queried WES repositories for MME variants and measured blood levels of the MME-encoded protein neprilysin. Results In the WES cohort, the overall detection rate for assumed disease-causing variants in genes for CMT or other conditions associated with neuropathies was 18.3% (familial cases 26.4%, apparently sporadic cases 12.3%). MME was most frequently involved and accounted for 34.8% of genetically solved cases. The relevance of MME for late-onset neuropathies was further supported by detection of a comparable proportion of cases in an independent patient sample, preponderance ofMMEvariants among patients compared to population frequencies, retrieval of additional late-onset neuropathy patients with MME variants from WES repositories, and low neprilysin levels in patients' blood samples. Transmission of MME variants was often consistent with an incompletely penetrant autosomal-dominant trait and less frequently with autosomal-recessive inheritance. Conclusions: A detectable fraction of unexplained late-onset axonal neuropathies is genetically determined, by variants in either CMT genes or genes involved in other conditions that affect the peripheral nerves and can mimic a CMT phenotype. MME variants can act as completely penetrant recessive alleles but also confer dominantly inherited susceptibility to axonal neuropathies in an aging population.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Medizin
• Themengebiete: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• ISSN: 0028-3878
• Sprache: Englisch