Case#: Bessa_Patient_1, female, age 3 at onset, Portuguese nationality
CasePresentingHPOs: HP:0000736 (Short attention span), HP:0002463 (Language impairment), HP:0002312 (Clumsiness), HP:0033044 (Motor regression), HP:0002376 (Developmental regression), HP:0000572 (Visual loss), HP:0002066 (Gait ataxia), HP:0001336 (Myoclonus), HP:0010819 (Atonic seizure), HP:0032794 (Myoclonic HP:0000648 (Optic atrophy), HP:0000546 (Retinal degeneration), HP:0012011 (EEG with occipital focal spike waves), HP:0002059 (Cerebral atrophy), HP:0001272 (Cerebellar atrophy), HP:0030891 (Periventricular white matter hyperdensities), HP:0001268 (Mental deterioration), HP:0031058 (Impairment of activities of daily living), HP:0011463 (Childhood onset), HP:0000712 (Emotional lability), HP:0002015 (Dysphagia), HP:0010864 (Intellectual disability, severe), HP:0001332 (Dystonia), HP:0007256 HP:0025357 (Erratic myoclonus), HP:0003205 (Curvilinear intracellular accumulation of autofluorescent lipopigment storage material), HP:0003208 (Fingerprint intracellular accumulation of autofluorescent lipopigment storage material)
CaseHPOFreeText: Progressive attention deficits and regression of language ability were the phenotypes at presentation (age 3). Motor clumsiness presented at age 4, initiating a larger pattern of developmental regression. Phenotypes with onset at age 7 included visual deterioration, gait ataxia, distal and axial myoclonus, atonic and myoclonic generalized epileptic seizures, bilateral optic atrophy, retinal degeneration, abnormal EEG showing diffuse slowing of background rhythm and occipital spike-wave activity, and abnormal brain MRI with cerebral and cerebellar atrophy as well as increased signal intensity of both the posterior limb of the capsula interna and the periventricular white matter. At age 8, any independence in daily activities was lost, as well as any language abilities. Ataxic gait was marked, and EEG activity showed slowing and disorganization, frequent multifocal high-voltage polyspike-slow wave complexes, and epileptic activity corresponding to myoclonus. At 15 years (time of study), the patient was bedridden and showed amaurotic behavior, emotional lability, marked dysphagia, severe mental retardation, dystonic postures of the limbs and trunk, pyramidal signs in the limbs, bilateral optic atrophy, and frequent myoclonus (both erratic and stimulus-induced). Intracellular accumulation of autofluorescent lipopigment storage material was also detected at age 15.
CaseNotHPOs: N/A
CaseNotHPOFreeText: N/A
CasePreviousTesting: Previous genotype testing was not performed. While the PPT1 and TPP1 loci were not sequenced, their enzymatic activity in extracts from leucocyte and fibroblast cells was confirmed to be within the normal range.
CaseGenotypingMethod: Based on detailed clinical phenotypes consistent with variant NCL with late-infantile onset, coding regions and intron boundaries of the CLN3, CLN5, and CLN6 loci were PCR-amplified and subjected to Sanger sequencing. Genome-wide analysis methods were not used. Parents (and patient) were subsequently genotyped using single strand conformational polymorphisms and restriction digest of PCR products, to identify variants in cis and in trans with one another.
Variant: The patient is a compound heterozygote with a paternally inherited NM_006493.4(CLN5):c.418C>T (p.Gln140Ter) variant and maternally inherited NM_006493.4(CLN5):c.688G>A (p.Asp230Asn) and NM_006493.4(CLN5):c.188G>C (p.Arg63Pro) variants.
ClinVar: 56538, 2566, 56533
gnomAD: The maximum allele frequency of the NM_006493.4(CLN5):c.688G>A (p.Asp230Asn) variant is 0.00005437 (within the East Asian population, with no homozygous occurrences).
https://gnomad.broadinstitute.org/variant/13-77574715-G-A
The NM_006493.4(CLN5):c.418C>T (p.Gln140Ter) and NM_006493.4(CLN5):c.188G>C (p.Arg63Pro) variants are absent from gnomAD.
VariantEvidence: Reduced CLN5 expression by 45% at the mRNA level indicates that one of the two alleles may be subject to nonsense mediated decay and likely absence of the corresponding protein product. This may confirm the prediction that the nonsense variant NM_006493.4(CLN5):c.418C>T (p.Gln140Ter) is likely subject to nonsense mediated decay. One of the two maternally inherited variants, NM_006493.4(CLN5):c.688G>A (p.Asp230Asn), has been previously shown to introduce an additional N-glycosylation site within the C-terminal region of CLN5 (PMID:20052765) and to disturb its localization to the lysosome (PMID:20052765).
CaseAddInfo: Parents are healthy and non-consanguineous.
CasePMIDs: N/A