Frequency of ABCA4 mutations in 278 Spanish controls: an insight into the prevalence of autosomal recessive Stargardt disease.

AIM: To determine the carrier frequency of ABCA4 mutations in order to achieve an insight into the prevalence of autosomal recessive Stargardt disease (arSTGD) in the Spanish population. METHODS: arSTGD patients (n = 133) were analysed using ABCR400 microarray and sequencing. Control subjects were analysed by two different strategies: 200 individuals were screened for the p.Arg1129Leu mutation by denaturing-HPLC and sequencing; 78 individuals were tested for variants with the microarray and sequencing. RESULTS: For the first strategy in control subjects, the p.Arg1129Leu variant was found in two heterozygous individuals, which would mean a carrier frequency for any variant of approximately 6.0% and a calculated arSTGD prevalence of 1:1000. For the second strategy, carrier frequency was 6.4% and therefore an estimated prevalence of the disease of 1:870. CONCLUSION: Calculated prevalence of arSTGD based on the ABCA4 carrier frequency could be considerably higher than previous estimation. This discrepancy between observed (genotypic) and estimated (phenotypic) prevalence could be due to the existence of non-pathological or low penetrance alleles, which may result in late-onset arSTGD or may be implicated in age-related macular degeneration. This situation should be regarded with special care when genetic counselling is given and further follow-up of these patients should be recommended.

Molecular analysis of the ABCA4 gene for reliable detection of allelic variations in Spanish patients: identification of 21 novel variants.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Mutations in ABCA4 have been associated with autosomal recessive Stargardt disease (STGD), a few cases with autosomal recessive cone-rod dystrophy (arCRD) and autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (arRP). The purpose of the study was threefold: to molecularly characterise families with no mutations or partially characterised families; to determine the specificity and sensitivity of the genotyping microarray; and to evaluate the efficiency of different methodologies. METHODS: 23 STGD, five arCRD and three arRP Spanish patients who were previously analysed with the ABCR400 microarray were re-evaluated. Results were confirmed by direct sequencing. In patients with either none or only one mutant allele, ABCA4 was further analysed by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (dHPLC) and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA). Haplotype analysis was also performed. RESULTS: In the first analysis performed with the microarray, 27 ABCA4 variants (27/62; 43.5%) were found. By dHPLC scanning, 12 novel mutations were additionally identified. In addition, two previously described mutations, one false negative (1/62; 1.6%) and one false positive (1.6%), were detected. MLPA analysis did not reveal additional substitutions. The new strategy yielded an increment of 21% compared with the approach used in the first round. CONCLUSION: ABCA4 should be analysed by optimal combination of high-throughput screening techniques such as microarray, dHPLC and direct sequencing. To the best of our knowledge, this strategy yielded significant mutational spectrum identification in Spanish patients with ABCA4-associated phenotypes. Follow-up of patients, presenting an early onset of the disease and severe mutations, seems essential to perform accurate genotype-phenotype correlations and further characterisation of pathological ABCA4 alleles.

Partial paternal uniparental disomy (UPD) of chromosome 1 in a patient with Stargardt disease.

PURPOSE: Stargardt disease (STGD) is the most common juvenile macular dystrophy, characterized by central visual impairment. All recessively inherited cases are thought to be due to mutations in the ABCA4 gene, mapped to 1p21-p13. METHODS: To describe a form of non-mendelian inheritance in a patient with STGD identified through the course of a conventional mutational screening performed on 77 STGD families. DNA from the patient and relatives was analyzed for variants in all 50 exons of the ABCA4 gene by screening on the ABCR400 microarray; results were confirmed by direct sequencing. Haplotype analyses, standard and high-resolution (HR) karyotypes, and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) were also performed. RESULTS: A patient with STGD caused by the homozygous p.Arg1129Leu mutation in the ABCA4 gene was found to be the daughter of a noncarrier mother and a father who was heterozygous for this change. Haplotype analysis suggested that no maternal ABCA4 allele was transmitted to the patient. Microsatellite markers spanning the entire chromosome 1 identified a homozygous region of at least 4.4 Mb, involving the ABCA4 gene. The cytogenetic study revealed normal female karyotype. Further evaluation with MLPA showed the patient had a normal dosage for both copies of the ABCA4 gene, thus suggesting partial paternal isodisomy but not a maternal microdeletion. CONCLUSIONS: We report that recessive STGD can rarely be inherited from only one unaffected carrier parent in a non-mendelian manner. This study also demonstrates that genomic alterations contribute to only a small fraction of disease-associated alleles for ABCA4.