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1 From the Berman-Gund Laboratory for the Study of Retinal Degenerations and the Ocular Molecular Genetics Institute, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts; and the 2 F. M. Kirby Center for Molecular Ophthalmology, University of Pennsylvania, Scheie Eye Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. A set of 241 patients who did not have mutations in the rhodopsin gene (based on previous work) formed the basis for the study. Of these patients, 117 had also been previously evaluated and were found not to carry mutations in the RDS gene. The single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) method was used to search for sequence variants, which were then directly sequenced. The relatives of selected patients were recruited for segregation analyses. Clinical evaluations of patients included a measurement of Snellen visual acuity, final dark adaptation thresholds, visual fields, and ERGs. Clinical data were compared with those obtained earlier from a study of 128 patients with dominant rhodopsin mutations.
RESULTS. Of the 241 patients, all were screened for the most common RP1 mutation (Arg677Ter), and 10 patients were found to have this mutation. In addition, an evaluation of a subset of 189 patients in whom the entire coding sequence was evaluated revealed the following mutations: Gln679Ter (1 case), Gly723Ter (2 cases), Glu729(1-bp del) (1 case), Leu762(5-bp del) (2 cases), and Asn763(4-bp del) (1 case). All of these mutations cosegregated with RP in the families of the index patients. Nine missense mutations that were each found in six or fewer patients were encountered. The segregation of eight of these was evaluated in the respective patients families, and only one segregated with dominant RP. This cosegregating missense change was in cis with the nonsense mutation Gln679Ter. Although patients with RP1 mutations had, on average, slightly better visual acuity than patients with rhodopsin mutations, there was no statistically significant difference in final dark-adaptation thresholds, visual field diameters, or cone electroretinogram (ERG) amplitudes. Comparably aged patients with RP1 mutations had visual function that varied by approximately two orders of magnitude, based on visual fields and ERG amplitudes.
CONCLUSIONS. Dominant RP1 alleles typically have premature nonsense codons occurring in the last exon of the gene and would be expected to encode mutant proteins that are only approximately one third the size of the wild-type protein, suggesting that a dominant negative effect rather than haploinsufficiency is the mechanism leading to RP caused by RP1 mutations. On average, patients with RP1 mutations have slightly better visual acuity than patients with dominant rhodopsin mutations; otherwise, they have similarly severe disease. The wide range in severity among patients with RP1 mutations indicates that other genetic or environmental factors modulate the effect of the primary mutation.
| Introduction |
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| Materials and Methods |
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Leukocyte DNA was purified and screened for mutations in the RP1 gene by single-strand conformation analysis (SSCP), as described previously.5 Patients with variantly migrating fragments were evaluated further by directly sequencing the corresponding amplicon. To search specifically for the mutation Arg677Ter, we amplified patient DNA samples with the following primer pair (sense/antisense): 5'-AGGTTCAGTCCTATTTCAGCAGATG-3'/5'-ATTCTACCTTTTGTGTTTATTCTCTCA-3'. The amplified fragment was digested with the enzyme TaqI (the Arg677Ter mutation destroys a TaqI recognition sequence), and the resultant DNA fragments were separated by electrophoresis through agarose gels. When sequence abnormalities were detected by SSCP or the TaqI analysis, the patients relatives were invited to participate by donating a blood sample and, in some cases, by coming to the project laboratory for an ocular examination including an electroretinogram (ERG). Selected regions of the RP1 gene were evaluated in DNA from up to 187 unrelated, unaffected control individuals without a family history of RP.
Ocular examinations were performed with techniques previously
described.6
Specifically, dark-adaptation thresholds after
45 minutes of dark adaptation were measured in the Goldmann-Weekers
dark adaptometer to an 11° white test light projected either
centrally or, if the patients field was sufficiently large, 7°
below fixation. Kinetic perimetry was performed with a V4e white test
light in all patients and with a I4e or II4e test light in
approximately one third of patients. Each test light was brought from
the nonseeing to the seeing areas. We used the V4e test light for these
analyses because this is the only test light for which we have a full
data set on our patients. Visual field areas were determined with a
desk-top planimeter or with images of the visual fields scanned into a
computer. Equivalent visual field diameters were calculated as twice
the square root of the visual field area divided by
:
2(area/
)1/2.
Full-field ERGs were elicited to single flashes (1/2 Hz) of white light (0.22 candelas [cd]/sec · m2) and to 30-Hz white flashes of the same luminance in a Ganzfeld dome. Responses were recorded with or without computer averaging. All responses with amplitudes of less than 10 µV were obtained with computer averaging. Amplitudes were measured from the trough of the a-wave (or from the baseline, if the a-wave was absent) to the peak of the b-wave for responses to 0.5-Hz light flashes, and from trough to peak for the responses to 30-Hz flashes. Nondetectable responses, defined as amplitudes less than 1 µV for responses to 0.5-Hz light flashes or less than 0.05 µV for responses to 30-Hz light flashes, were coded as 1 or 0.05 µV, respectively, because these are the limits of detectability. The reproducibility of submicrovolt signals in response to 30-Hz light flashes has been documented in the past.7 8
When patients had more than one clinical evaluation, data from the initial visit were used for analysis. Test results from both eyes were averaged. With the exception of visual acuities, the data were transformed to the log scale to approximate a normal distribution. Mean values were corrected for age and refractive error and compared with data obtained from 128 patients of similar age who had previously been found to have RP due to dominant mutations in the rhodopsin gene.1 4
| Results |
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Nonpathogenic Missense Polymorphisms and Rare Variants
Four additional missense changes (Asn985Tyr, Ala1670Thr,
Ser1691Pro, and Cys2033Tyr) were each found at an allele frequency
greater than 0.25 among the 189 unrelated patients with dominant RP
(Table 2) . All four have been reported previously.9
12
The
missense polymorphism Arg872His, previously reported to have an allele
frequency of 0.25,9
was not detected by our SSCP method
but was identified among several patients by directly sequencing codon
872. The allele frequencies of these changes are listed in Table 2
,
except for Arg872His because of our difficulties in detecting it by
SSCP. We concluded that these five missense changes were nonpathogenic
polymorphisms for the following reasons: The frequency of these alleles
was high; each of them was found in at least one patient who also had a
definitely pathogenic nonsense mutation in RP1 (data not
shown); in at least one family each, we showed that they did not
segregate with disease (data not shown); and the frequencies of
heterozygotes and homozygotes indicated that the alleles were in
apparent Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (data not shown).
The missense changes Ala1670Thr and Ser1691Pro and the isocoding change at Gln1725 (described later) were usually found together, indicating that they reflect an allele with the less common sequence at all three codons. However, we found a few patients with an allele with the Ser1691Pro change but not with the less common sequence at codons 1670 and 1725. Two other novel missense changes, Arg376Leu and Leu1425Pro, were found only among normal control subjects at low frequencies and not in any patients (Table 2) , and we considered them to be rare, nonpathogenic variants.
Isocoding and Intron Changes
Isocoding changes affecting codons Leu76, Thr93, Ser1233, and
Gln1725 were found among patients, and an isocoding change affecting
Pro138 was found in a control individual. All these isocoding changes
were at a low frequency and were presumed not to be pathogenic (Table 2) . A change in intron 2 (IVS2-6T
C) was also found at a low
frequency in patients and control subjects and was presumed not to be
pathogenic. Of these isocoding and intron changes, the changes
affecting codons 138 and 1233 are novel.
Clinical Evaluation of Patients with Nonsense RP1
Alleles
Based on the cosegregation of the mutations with dominant RP and
their absence among control subjects, we concluded that all six
nonsense mutations were pathogenic. We clinically evaluated the 17
index patients with these mutations and 7 of their affected relatives.
The ages of the 24 patients ranged from 16 to 66 years (Table 3)
. Some of the patients had no symptomatic night blindness or
symptomatic visual field loss at the time of their initial examination
(Table 3)
. Most patients had intraretinal bone-spicule pigment deposits
in all four quadrants of both eyes, and 9 of the 24 patients had
cataracts in one or both eyes (Table 3)
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350 µV). The geometric
mean cone amplitude was 2.0 µV (normal,
50 µV). Visual fields
were also reduced, with the geometric mean visual field equivalent
diameter reduced to 85° (normal is
120°). None of our patients
exhibited a preferential loss of the superior temporal visual field
when evaluated with the V4e test light at their initial evaluation
except patient 001-240 who had bone-spicule pigment deposits
exclusively inferonasally; he had superotemporal loss of visual field
in both eyes, as measured with the V4e and I4e lights.
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Figure 3 shows a comparison of visual acuity, visual field equivalent diameter, final dark-adaptation threshold, and cone ERG amplitude between the 24 patients with RP1 mutations and 128 patients with dominant rhodopsin mutations. Each measurement is plotted as a function of age. When we used multiple regression, controlling for age and refractive error, patients with an RP1 mutation had better visual acuity than patients with a rhodopsin mutation (P = 0.017). Other measures of visual function were not significantly different between the two groups of patients (P = 0.33, 0.40, and 0.21 for dark-adaptation thresholds, visual field equivalent diameters, and 30-Hz cone ERG amplitudes, respectively).
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| Discussion |
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Based on our results, we can estimate the proportion of dominant RP due to RP1 gene mutations. Based on our survey of 241 unrelated patients for the Arg677Ter mutation and a subset of 189 patients for mutations in the entire coding region, we found RP1 defects in 7.7% of unrelated cases. Because patients with rhodopsin mutations had been excluded and because they account for approximately 25% of dominant RP in our patient population,1 the true proportion of RP1 mutations in dominant RP would be reduced by approximately 25%, for an estimated proportion of 5.8%. Cases due to RDS mutations that were previously identified in our laboratory have also been excluded. Because not all the patients in this study had been evaluated for RDS mutations and because the reported proportion of dominant RP due to RDS mutations is low (approximately 4%),2 the adjustment to the calculated proportion of dominant RP due to RP1 is small. We estimate that the adjustment would decrease the proportion by only 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points, so that the best estimate of the proportion of dominant RP families due to RP1 mutations is approximately 5.6%.
This is based on data only from our laboratory, whose patients come mainly from the United States and Canada. This proportion can be compared with that obtained by a recent study of 266 British patients with dominant RP that found 21 (8%), with RP1 mutations.13 However, that study did not specify whether it excluded patients known to have mutations in other dominant RP genes. If patients with rhodopsin mutations had been excluded, then the proportion of dominant RP caused by RP1 mutations would be about 6%, close to our value. Another study from the United States surveyed 250 unrelated patients with dominant RP and found 17 with mutations (7%), but the entire coding region of the gene was evaluated in only 56 of the patients.11
Our clinical evaluation of patients with RP1 mutations indicates that there is a wide range in the severity of the disease even in patients with the same mutation. Measures of retinal function, such as visual field diameters or cone ERG amplitudes, can vary approximately 100-fold between the most severely affected patients and the least severely affected, even at comparable ages. Others have also reported a wide range of severity of disease caused by RP1 mutations, including asymptomatic carriers.12 15 A similar range of severity has been seen in patients with rhodopsin mutations.4 This variation must be due to factors other than the primary gene defect.
It has been reported that patients with RP1 mutations can exhibit a regional variation in disease, with more loss of superior and temporal visual field and more intraretinal pigment deposits in the corresponding regions of the inferior fundus.12 In our cohort, only once did we observe this pattern (patient 001-240). Even in this patient, the full-field cone ERG implicit times were delayed, suggesting generalized retinal degeneration.
Our comparison of the clinical findings in patients with RP1 mutations with those in patients with dominant rhodopsin mutations did not reveal any features that were sufficiently distinctive, alone or in combination, to allow us to predict the causative gene from the phenotype. All our measures of visual function in patients with RP1 mutations were similar to those seen in patients with rhodopsin mutations, with the exception of visual acuity. Patients with RP1 mutations retained, on average, slightly better central acuity, but the difference was modest, and there was substantial overlap in the two groups of patients. At age 30, for example, patients with RP1 mutations had an average acuity of 20/23, whereas patients with rhodopsin mutations had an average acuity of 20/27. At age 60 the average acuities were 20/30 and 20/40, respectively. There may be asymptomatic affected individuals in families with mutations in RP1 as well as the rhodopsin gene. Nonetheless, abnormal ERGs were present in asymptomatic carriers (e.g., patient 226-665 at age 18 years and 001-281 at age 28), consistent with the RP1 mutations having complete penetrance. Clinicians should be reminded that absence of visual symptoms, particularly among young patients, does not exclude the disease.
| Footnotes |
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Submitted for publication January 22, 2001; revised May 9, 2001; accepted May 31, 2001.
Commercial relationships policy: N.
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page
charge payment. This article must therefore be marked
"advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
1734
solely to indicate this fact.
Corresponding author: Eliot L. Berson, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114.
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