1. Clinical significance of E148Q heterozygous variant in paediatric familial Mediterranean fever.
- Author
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Tirosh I, Yacobi Y, Vivante A, Barel O, Ben-Moshe Y, Erez Granat O, Spielman S, Semo Oz R, Shinar Y, and Gerstein M
- Subjects
- Amino Acid Substitution, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Heterozygote, Humans, Male, Retrospective Studies, Familial Mediterranean Fever genetics, Pyrin genetics
- Abstract
Objectives: FMF results from mutations in the Mediterranean fever (MEFV) gene. The p. E148Q protein alternation is one of the most frequent in the MEFV gene, yet the exact E148Q genotype-phenotype correlation remains unclear. The aim of this study was to examine clinical significance of heterozygous E148Q variant in a paediatric FMF cohort., Methods: We compared the clinical manifestations and disease severity score of four genetic subgroups: (group 1) patients harbouring a single heterozygous p. E148Q variant (n = 6); (group 2) patients harbouring a single p. M694V heterozygous variant (n = 88); (group 3) patients harbouring compound heterozygous p. M694V and p. E148Q variants (n = 36); and (group 4) homozygotes for p. M694V variant (n = 160)., Results: Of 646 FMF children from our centre, only 1% (six patients) of our genetically characterized FMF cohort had a single E148Q variant, most presenting with recurrent fevers and abdominal pain. None of the participants was found to harbour homozygous E148Q. Overall, M694V/E148Q compound heterozygosity did not exhibit a more severe phenotype compared with patients with a single M694V variant. The former group were less likely to have abdominal pain and exertional leg pain (P < 0.004 and P < 0.001, respectively) and more likely to have chest pain (P < 0.01). Both subgroups showed milder clinical phenotype compared with patients with M694V homozygosity., Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that a single heterozygous E148Q variant is unlikely to cause FMF in children and that E148Q/M694V is clinically indistinguishable from a single M694V variant. Thus, E148Q heterozygosity does not result in clinically meaningful phenotype in children., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)
- Published
- 2021
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