Identification of a common founder couple for 40 South African Afrikaner families with Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: Afrikaners are a unique ethnic group in South Africa (SA) with well-documented ancestral records spanning a period of over 350 years. They are mainly descended from Dutch, German and French settlers to SA in the 17th and 18th centuries. Today several disorders in this population occur at relatively high frequencies as a result of founder effects.Objective. To determine whether a founder effect for Parkinson's disease (PD) is present in the Afrikaner population. METHODS: Study participants were recruited from the Movement Disorders Clinic at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, SA, and from support groups of the Parkinson's Association of South Africa. Standard methods for genealogical research in SA on hereditary diseases were used including interviews and searches in sources such as state archives, the Huguenot Museum in Franschhoek, marriage and baptismal records, and tombstone inscriptions. RESULTS: For 40 of the PD families, there was only a single most recent ancestral couple common to all of the families. On average there are between three and four ancestral lines to the founder couple per proband (range 1 -14). CONCLUSION: If genetic studies confirm the presence of a founder effect for PD in Afrikaners, this would imply that there is a large number of individuals from this ethnic group who may potentially be at risk of developing this debilitating condition. This study illustrates and reinforces the concept that genealogical analysis is a powerful tool for identification of founder effects for various disorders in the Afrikaner population.

Phenotypic variability and unusual clinical severity of congenital long-QT syndrome in a founder population.

BACKGROUND: In the congenital long-QT syndrome (LQTS), there can be a marked phenotypic heterogeneity. Founder effects, by which many individuals share a mutation identical by descent, represent a powerful tool to further understand the underlying mechanisms and to predict the natural history of mutation-associated effects. We are investigating one such founder effect, originating in South Africa in approximately ad 1700 and segregating the same KCNQ1 mutation (A341V). METHODS AND RESULTS: The study population involved 320 subjects, 166 mutation carriers (MCs) and 154 noncarriers. When not taking beta-blocker therapy, MCs had a wide range of QTc values (406 to 676 ms), and 12% of individuals had a normal QTc (< or =440 ms). A QTc >500 ms was associated with increased risk for cardiac events (OR=4.22; 95% CI, 1.12 to 15.80; P=0.033). We also found that MCs with a heart rate <73 bpm were at significantly lower risk (OR=0.23; 95% CI, 0.06 to 0.86; P=0.035). This study also unexpectedly determined that KCNQ1-A341V is associated with greater risk than that reported for large databases of LQT1 patients: A341V MCs are more symptomatic by age 40 years (79% versus 30%) and become symptomatic earlier (7+/-4 versus 13+/-9 years, both P<0.001). Accordingly, functional studies of KCNQ1-A341V in CHO cells stably expressing IKs were conducted and identified a dominant negative effect of the mutation on wild-type channels. CONCLUSIONS: KCNQ1-A341V is a mutation associated with an unusually severe phenotype, most likely caused by the dominant negative effect of the mutation. The availability of an extended kindred with a common mutation allowed us to identify heart rate, an autonomic marker, as a novel risk factor.