Recessive amyotrophic lateral sclerosis families with the D90A SOD1 mutation share a common founder: evidence for a linked protective factor - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 1998 Dec;7(13):2045-50.

doi: 10.1093/hmg/7.13.2045.

P M Andersen, B Chioza, C Shaw, P C Sham, W Robberecht, G Matthijs, W Camu, S L Marklund, L Forsgren, G Rouleau, N G Laing, P V Hurse, T Siddique, P N Leigh, J F Powell

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Recessive amyotrophic lateral sclerosis families with the D90A SOD1 mutation share a common founder: evidence for a linked protective factor

A Al-Chalabi et al. Hum Mol Genet. 1998 Dec.

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive motor neurodegeneration resulting in paralysis and death from respiratory failure within 3-5 years. About 20% of familial cases are associated with mutations in the gene for copper/zinc superoxide dismutase ( SOD1 ), which catalyses the dismutation of the superoxide radical to hydrogen peroxide and oxygen. Experimental evidence suggests mutations act by a toxic gain of function but the mechanism is unknown. There are >60 known SOD1 mutations associated with ALS and all are dominant except for one in exon 4, a D90A substitution which is recessive. D90A pedigrees with dominant inheritance have now been reported and this apparent contradiction needs to be explained. We performed a worldwide haplotype study on 28 D90A pedigrees using six highly polymorphic microsatellite markers. We now show that all 20 recessive families share the same founder (alpha = 0.999), regardless of geographical location, whereas several founders exist for the eight dominant families (alpha = 0.385). This finding confirms that D90A can act in a dominant fashion in keeping with all other SOD1 mutations, but that on one occasion, a new instance of this mutation has been recessive. We propose a tightly linked protective factor which modifies the toxic effect of mutant SOD1 in recessive families.

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