SHORT REPORT

4193delC, a common mutation causing Wilson’s disease in Saudi Arabia: rapid molecular screening of patients and carriers

R Majumdar¹, M Al Jumah¹, M Fraser²

¹ Neurogenetics Laboratory, Department of Medicine, King Fahad National Guard Hospital, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
² Department of Biological and Medical Research, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr R Majumdar, Department of Medicine (mail code 1443), King Fahad National Guard Hospital, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia;
ramanathm{at}hotmail.com

Background: In patients with Wilson’s disease (WD), an autosomal recessive disorder, toxic accumulation of copper results in fatal liver disease and irreversible neuronal degeneration. ATP7B, the gene mutated in WD, contains 21 exons and encodes a copper transporting ATPase. A novel disease causing mutation (4193delC) in exon 21 of the ATP7B gene has previously been detected by heteroduplex analysis and DNA sequencing.

Aims: To screen for the above mutation in patients with WD and carriers using an amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS).

Methods: ARMS was used to screen for the 4193delC mutation in 30 patients with WD and their relatives.

Results: A homozygous mutation was detected in 16 of 30 patients with WD.

Conclusions: This polymerase chain reaction based method, which has been known for years, is a simple, inexpensive, and rapid method for screening common and specific mutations in patients with WD and carriers.

Keywords: Wilson’s disease; ATP7B gene; copper transporting ATPase; amplification refractory mutation system; mutation; Saudi tribes

Abbreviations: ARMS, amplification refractory mutation system; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; WD, Wilson’s disease

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Gupta, A., Maulik, M., Nasipuri, P., Chattopadhyay, I., Das, S. K., Gangopadhyay, P. K., The Indian Genome Variation Consortium, , Ray, K. (2007). Molecular Diagnosis of Wilson Disease Using Prevalent Mutations and Informative Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism Markers. Clin. Chem. 53: 1601-1608 [Abstract] [Full Text]