Ashkenazi Jewish Leukoencephalopathy

Genetic leukoencephalopathies (gLEs) are a group of heterogeneous disorders with white matter abnormalities in the central nervous system (CNS). Patients affected with gLEs have brain white matter defects that can be seen in MRI and exhibit variable neurologic phenotypes including motor impairment, hypotonia, pyramidal dysfunction, dystonia and/or dyskinesias, ataxia, seizures, cortical blindness, optic atrophy, and impaired cognitive development. The exact causes in half of gLEs are unknown. We studied three unrelated families affected with an undiagnosed gLE and discovered a homozygous germline mutation c.2536T>G in VPS11 by whole exome sequencing, a gene involved in membrane trafficking and fusion of the lysosomes and endosomes, as a novel cause of a new gLE syndrome.

Type: Exome Sequencing
Archiver: European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA)

1 Dataset 1 Publication

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Dataset ID	Description	Technology	Samples
EGAD00001002005	Using whole exome sequencing (WES), we identified homozygosity for a missense variant, VPS11: c.2536T>G (p.C846G), as the genetic cause of a leukoencephalopathy syndrome in two individuals from two unrelated Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) families. Both patients exhibited highly concordant disease progression characterized by infantile onset leukoencephalopathy with brain white matter abnormalities, severe motor impairment, cortical blindness, intellectual disability, and seizures.		2

Publications	Citations
A Founder Mutation in VPS11 Causes an Autosomal Recessive Leukoencephalopathy Linked to Autophagic Defects. Zhang J, Lachance V, Schaffner A, Li X, Fedick A, Kaye LE, Liao J, Rosenfeld J, Yachelevich N, Chu ML, Mitchell WG, Boles RG, Moran E, Tokita M, Gorman E, Bagley K, Zhang W, Xia F, Leduc M, Yang Y, Eng C, Wong LJ, Schiffmann R, Diaz GA, Kornreich R, Thummel R, Wasserstein M, Yue Z, Edelmann L. PLoS Genet 12: 2016 e1005848	36

Publications

Citations

A Founder Mutation in VPS11 Causes an Autosomal Recessive Leukoencephalopathy Linked to Autophagic Defects.
Zhang J, Lachance V, Schaffner A, Li X, Fedick A, Kaye LE, Liao J, Rosenfeld J, Yachelevich N, Chu ML, Mitchell WG, Boles RG, Moran E, Tokita M, Gorman E, Bagley K, Zhang W, Xia F, Leduc M, Yang Y, Eng C, Wong LJ, Schiffmann R, Diaz GA, Kornreich R, Thummel R, Wasserstein M, Yue Z, Edelmann L. PLoS Genet 12: 2016 e1005848