Extending the clinical phenotype of SPTAN1: From DEE5 to migraine, epilepsy, and subependymal heterotopias without intellectual disability

Autores de IIS La Fe

• Sandra Monfort Membrado

  Autor

• 

  Francisco Martínez Castellano

  Autor

Participantes ajenos a IIS La Fe

• Marco Hernández AV
• Caro A
• Montoya Filardi A
• Tomás Vila M
• Beseler Soto B
• Jose Nieto-Barcelo, Juan

Grupos

• Investigación Traslacional en Genética

  

  Leader

  Francisco Martínez Castellano

Abstract

Mutations in SPTAN1 gene, encoding the nonerythrocyte aII-spectrin, are responsible for a severe developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE5) and a wide spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders, as epilepsy with or without intellectual disability (ID) or ID with cerebellar syndrome. A certain genotype-phenotype correlation has been proposed according to the type and location of the mutation. Herein, we report three novel cases with de novo SPTAN1 mutations, one of them associated to a mild phenotype not previously described. They range from (1) severe developmental encephalopathy with ataxia and a mild cerebellar atrophy, without epilepsy; (2) moderate intellectual disability, severe language delay, ataxia and tremor; (3) normal intelligence, chronic migraine, and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Remarkably, all these patients showed brain MRI abnormalities, being of special interest the subependymal heterotopias detected in the latter patient. Thus we extend the SPTAN1-related phenotypic spectrum, both in its radiological and clinical involvement. Furthermore, after systematic analysis of all the patients so far reported, we noted an excess of male versus female patients (20:9, p = 0.04), more pronounced among the milder phenotypes. Consequently, some protection factor might be suspected among female carriers, which if confirmed should be considered when establishing the pathogenicity of milder genetic variants in this gene.

© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Keywords

• ataxia, cerebellar atrophy, intellectual disability, spectrin, subependymal heterotopia