Genetic analysis of polymorphisms in the kalirin gene for association with age-at-onset in European Huntington disease patients.
BACKGROUND
Huntington disease (HD) is caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the HD gene. Although the length of the CAG repeat strongly correlates with the age-at-onset (AAO), AAO in HD individuals may differ dramatically in spite of similar expanded CAG repeat lengths. Additional genetic or environmental factors are thought to influence the disease onset. Several modifier genes have been discovered so far but they do not fully explain the variability of AAO in HD. To potentially identify a novel genetic modifier, we analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the kalirin (KALRN) gene. Kalirin is a protein crucially involved in spine plasticity and its interaction with huntingtin-associated protein-1 (HAP-1) and a potential protein dysfunction might contribute to spine pathogenesis in HD.


METHODS
The selected SNPs were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and association of SNPs with AAO was investigated with the framework of linear models in an analysis of variance and covariance.


RESULTS
Eleven SNPs in the kalirin gene were examined in an association study in European HD patients. The ten coding SNPs under investigation were monomorphic, whereas SNP rs10934657 in the promoter region showed a minor allele frequency >1%. An analysis of covariance together with the influence of the expanded HD allele was applied in 680 HD patients. SNP rs10934657 did not affect the AAO of the examined HD population.


CONCLUSIONS
The results did not reveal an association between the analyzed kalirin polymorphisms and the AAO in HD. However, it does not exclude other SNPs of the kalirin gene as susceptible genetic modifiers.
Department of Medical Genetics, University of Tuebingen, Calwerstr 7, Tuebingen, 72076, Germany.
Yu-Chun
YC
Tsai
Silke
S
Metzger
Olaf
O
Riess
Anne S
AS
Soehn
Huu Phuc
HP
Nguyen
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D060045:Genes, Modifier / Q000235:genetics*; D005820:Genetic Testing; D020662:Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics*
D020662:Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors; C503866:KALRN protein, human; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases