Two novel truncating variants of the ASPM gene identified in a nonconsanguineous Chinese family associated with primary microcephaly

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  • Shuqin Xu
  • Wenqian Zhang
  • Rui Zhou
  • Hui Huang
  • Wei Chen
  • Wenhao Xiang
  • Limei Liu
  • Jieping Song

Primary autosomal recessive microcephaly 5 (MCPH5) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder with a relatively high incidence in regions where consanguineous marriage is widely practiced; So far, only a few MCPH5 cases have been reported from China. Here, we report clinical and molecular characteristics of two Chinese MCPH5 patients, a 24-year-old woman proband and her brother, a 19-year-old man, from a nonconsanguineous family. Main manifestations in the proband were small head circumference, premature closure of fontanelles, impaired concentration and moderate intellectual disability. The proband's brother had similar symptoms, but he was hyperactive and had a more severe sloping forehead. Brain imaging revealed global reduction in brain size, especially in the frontal lobes bilaterally and anterior horns of lateral ventricles. Sequencing results revealed that both patients carried a novel nonsense variant p.Tyr2004* (c.6012_6013delTA) and a novel frameshift variant p.Arg2005Serfs*48 (c.6015_6016delGG) in the ASPM gene. These variants were interpreted to be pathogenic in the in-silico analysis. Our findings help to expand the mutation spectrum of ASPM and provide new opportunities for assisting the traditional clinical diagnosis on the cases with atypical characteristics.

Original languageEnglish
JournalClinical Dysmorphology
Volume31
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)1-5
Number of pages5
ISSN0962-8827
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

    Research areas

  • ASPM, neurodevelopmental disorder, primary autosomal recessive microcephaly 5, ABNORMAL SPINDLE PROTEIN, MUTATION, WDR62, MCPH

ID: 287069534