LCA5, a rare genetic cause of leber congenital amaurosis in Koreans.
OBJECTIVE
Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), the most severe form of inherited retinal dystrophy, is a genetically heterogenous disorder and more than nine genes only account for about half of LCA cases. Recently, LCA5 was identified as a rare genetic cause of LCA. Here, we analyzed the LCA5 gene in 14 LCA patients with no mutation identified in any other known LCA genes and 3 patients with one unclassified missense variant in RPGRIP1.


METHODS
We analyzed all exons and flanking regions of the LCA5 gene using direct sequencing. We included 170 control subjects in this study to screen novel sequence variant and analyzed the functional effect of a missense variant using in-silico prediction.


RESULTS
No pathogenic mutation in LCA5 was found in our seventeen patients including 3 patients with one unclassified missense variant in RPGRIP1. We identified one novel missense variant, c.1642C>T (p.Pro548Ser), in exon 9. We considered it benign because it was found in control subjects and predicted not to be harmful to protein function on in-silico prediction. We identified another intronic variant, which has been confirmed to be benign through mRNA analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
This result shows that mutation in LCA5 is likely to be a rare genetic cause in Koreans and suggests that further investigation to identify other causative genes is necessary in Koreans.
Seong
Moon-Woo
MW
Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Cancer Center, Goyang, South Korea.
Kim
Seong Yeon
SY
Yu
Young Suk
YS
Hwang
Jeong-Min
JM
Kim
Ji Yeon
JY
Park
Sung Sup
SS
D001766:Blindness / Q000235:genetics*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D012162:Retinal Degeneration / Q000235:genetics*
D005136:Eye Proteins; C522405:LCA5 protein, human; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins