Mutations in TCF4, encoding a class I basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, are responsible for Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, a severe epileptic encephalopathy associated with autonomic dysfunction.
Pitt-Hopkins syndrome (PHS) is a rare syndromic encephalopathy characterized by daily bouts of hyperventilation and a facial gestalt. We report a 1.8-Mb de novo microdeletion on chromosome 18q21.1, identified by array-comparative genomic hybridization in one patient with PHS. We subsequently identified two de novo heterozygous missense mutations of a conserved amino acid in the basic region of the TCF4 gene in three additional subjects with PHS. These findings demonstrate that TCF4 anomalies are responsible for PHS and provide the first evidence of a human disorder related to class I basic helix-loop-helix transcription-factor defects (also known as "E proteins"). Moreover, our data may shed new light on the normal processes underlying autonomic nervous system development and maintenance of an appropriate ventilatory neuronal circuitry.
Amiel
Jeanne
J
From the Departments of Genetics, Pediatric Radiology and INSERM U-797, Universite Paris-Descartes, Faculte de Medecine, Hopitaux de Paris, Hopital Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, France. amiel@necker.fr
Rio
Marlene
M
de Pontual
Loic
L
Redon
Richard
R
Malan
Valerie
V
Boddaert
Nathalie
N
Plouin
Perrine
P
Carter
Nigel P
NP
Lyonnet
Stanislas
S
Munnich
Arnold
A
Colleaux
Laurence
L
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001342:Autonomic Nervous System Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D051778:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002887:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18 / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D018257:Helix-Loop-Helix Motifs / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013577:Syndrome; D051820:TCF Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D000073940:Transcription Factor 4; D058118:Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein; D014157:Transcription Factors
D051778:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D051820:TCF Transcription Factors; C532096:TCF4 protein, human; C544894:TCF7L2 protein, human; D000073940:Transcription Factor 4; D058118:Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein; D014157:Transcription Factors