Identification of pathogenic variants in three Chinese patients with McCune-Albright syndrome

Abstract

To explore the genetic basis for three Chinese patients with McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS). Three children who had respectively presented at Shandong Provincial Hospital in April 2019 and Peking Union Medical College Hospital in August 2020 and May 2021 were selected as the research subjects. Peripheral blood samples of the probands and their family members were taken for the extraction of genomic DNA. Potential variants were screened by whole exome sequencing (WES), and candidate variants were validated by Sanger sequencing of the patients and their family members. The proband from family 1 was found to harbor a heterozygous c.601C>T (p.R201C) missense variant in exon 8 of the GNAS gene, whilst the probands from families 2 and 3 were both found to harbor a heterozygous c.602G>A (p.R201H) missense variant in exon 8 of the GNAS gene. Both variants were known to be pathogenic, and all probands were found to be mosaics for the corresponding variants but with various degrees. WES can effectively diagnose MAS and other somatic genetic disorders. In this study, the combined WES and Sanger sequencing have verified the degree of mosaicisms of pathogenic variants in the three MAS patients, albeit no apparent correlation was found between the degree of mosaicisms and the phenotype of patients. Above finding has provided a basis for genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis for the affected families.