UMMS Affiliation
Department of Neurology
Publication Date
2019-03-03
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities | Genetic Phenomena | Musculoskeletal Diseases | Nervous System Diseases | Neurology | Neuroscience and Neurobiology | Nucleic Acids, Nucleotides, and Nucleosides | Translational Medical Research
Abstract
Objective: Dysferlin is a large transmembrane protein that functions in critical processes of membrane repair and vesicle fusion. Dysferlin-deficiency due to mutations in the dysferlin gene leads to muscular dystrophy (Miyoshi myopathy (MM), limb girdle muscular dystrophy type 2B (LGMD2B), distal myopathy with anterior tibial onset (DMAT)), typically with early adult onset. At least 416 pathogenic dysferlin mutations are known, but for approximately 17% of patients, one or both of their pathogenic variants remain undefined following standard exon sequencing methods that interrogate exons and nearby flanking intronic regions but not the majority of intronic regions.
Methods: We sequenced RNA from myogenic cells to identify a novel dysferlin pathogenic variant in two affected siblings that previously had only one disease-causing variant identified. We designed antisense oligonucleotides (AONs) to bypass the effects of this mutation on RNA splicing.
Results: We identified a new pathogenic point mutation deep within dysferlin intron 50i. This intronic variant causes aberrant mRNA splicing and inclusion of an additional pseudoexon (PE, we term PE50.1) within the mature dysferlin mRNA. PE50.1 inclusion alters the protein sequence, causing premature translation termination. We identified this mutation in 23 dysferlinopathy patients (seventeen families), revealing it to be one of the more prevalent dysferlin mutations. We used AON-mediated exon skipping to correct the aberrant PE50.1 splicing events in vitro, which increased normal mRNA production and significantly restored dysferlin protein expression.
Interpretation: Deep intronic mutations can be a common underlying cause of dysferlinopathy, and importantly, could be treatable with AON-based exon-skipping strategies.
Rights and Permissions
Copyright 2019 The Authors. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc on behalf of American Neurological Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
DOI of Published Version
10.1002/acn3.738
Source
Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2019 Mar 3;6(4):642-654. doi: 10.1002/acn3.738. eCollection 2019 Apr. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Annals of clinical and translational neurology
Related Resources
PubMed ID
31019989
Repository Citation
Dominov JA, Uyan O, McKenna-Yasek D, Nallamilli B, Kergourlay V, Bartoli M, Levy N, Hudson J, Evangelista T, Lochmuller H, Krahn M, Rufibach L, Hegde M, Brown RH. (2019). Correction of pseudoexon splicing caused by a novel intronic dysferlin mutation. Open Access Publications by UMMS Authors. https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.738. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/3784
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities Commons, Genetic Phenomena Commons, Musculoskeletal Diseases Commons, Nervous System Diseases Commons, Neurology Commons, Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons, Nucleic Acids, Nucleotides, and Nucleosides Commons, Translational Medical Research Commons