title: Novel exon 1 progranulin gene variant in Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Progranulin (PGRN) expression is increased in activated microglia in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain, suggesting a potential role in this pathology.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mutation scanning of exons and flanking regions of PGRN was carried out in 120 patients with sporadic frontotemporal lobar degeneration and 145 with sporadic AD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Amongst variants not yet deposited, a novel allelic variant was identified in Exon 1 (g100169G > A). It leads to an amino acidic change (p.Gly35Arg) and was observed in a patient with late onset AD. In silico analysis predicted that this mutation is possibly damaging. A second variant (g.100165C > T), resulting in a silent mutation (pAsp33Asp), was found in a patient with semantic dementia and in another with early onset AD. Both variants were absent in 226 controls. In addition, two rare non-pathogenic variants lying very close to PGRN splice-site regions (IVS2 + 7-->G > A and IVS7 + 7-->G > A) were observed. Transcriptional analysis in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients demonstrated they do not affect exon splicing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A novel putative PGRN mutation leading to an amino acidic substitution was identified in a patient with clinical AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences, Dino Ferrari Center, University of Milan, IRCCS Fondazione Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
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authors.lastname: Cortini
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authors.lastname: Fenoglio
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authors.lastname: Guidi
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authors.lastname: Venturelli
authors.forename: S
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authors.lastname: Pomati
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authors.lastname: Marcone
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scalabrini
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authors.lastname: Villa
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authors.lastname: Clerici
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authors.lastname: Dalla Valle
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authors.lastname: Mariani
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authors.lastname: Cappa
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authors.lastname: Bresolin
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Scarpini
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Galimberti