HTT Gene Premutation Allele Frequencies in the Russian Federation

Abstract

Huntington disease (Huntington chorea, HD) is a severe neurodegenerative disease determined by polyglutamine. Polyglutamine expansion in exon 1 of the HTT gene causes Huntington disease. To date, less than 35 CAG triplets are suggested to be present in normal alleles. Alleles bearing from 27 to 35 CAG repeats are generally considered as intermediate or premutation. Alleles with the number of CAG repeats varying from 36 to 39 demonstrate reduced penetrance and result in late manifestation of the disease. To date, no studies based on representative samples of Russian residents estimating the frequencies of premutation and alleles with reduced penetrance have been published. Meanwhile, this is extremely important for genetic counseling of patients bearing such alleles and for the calculation of risks for their offspring. In the present study, the analysis of samples of Russian patients with incoming diagnoses of Huntington chorea (N = 1092), Wilson–Konovalov disease (N = 333), Hallervorden–Spatz disease (N = 33) and a control group consisting of 230 unexamined individuals from the Russian Federation under 45 years of age was carried out. A spectrum of CAG repeat length in the HTT gene in patients with HD was obtained. Patients with HD were detected in the samples of patients with incoming diagnoses of Wilson–Konovalov disease and Hallervorden–Spatz disease. This observation indicates the complexity of differential diagnosis of these diseases. An assumption was made that an allele with 36 CAG repeats should be classified as premutation. We confirmed the previously observed trend for the increased number of CAG repeats in the case of paternal transmission of the mutant allele. The frequency of premutation allele of 2.6% in Russian residents was established.