Neuronal Apoptosis Inhibitory Protein Gene Research Articles

Analysis of chromosome 5q13 genes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: homozygous NAIP deletion in a sporadic case.

Although defects in the gene encoding the enzyme cytosolic copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) have been reported in 20% of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients, the etiology of the remaining familial cases and the more common sporadic form of the disease remains unknown. Recently, deletions of the neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein gene NAIP, of the survival motor neuron gene SMN, and of a further cDNA fragment, XS2G3, have been reported in childhood-onset proximal spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), another disorder with pathology restricted to the motor system. We have therefore investigated the possibility of alterations in SMN and NAIP in 154 patients with ALS (135 sporadic cases, 17 familial cases). None of these patients revealed mutations in SMN by single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis. A single patient revealed a partial deletion of NAIP, with a homozygous absence of NAIP exon 5. While it is possible that this individual is one of the rare carriers of SMA who show NAIP deletions, a further explanation is that the NAIP deletion is in some way contributing to the ALS phenotype in this individual.

Large scale deletions of the 5q13 region are specific to Werdnig-Hoffmann disease.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is characterised by degeneration of anterior horn cells of the spinal cord and represents the second most common, lethal, autosomal recessive disorder after cystic fibrosis. Based on the criteria of the Internatinal SMA Consortium, childhood SMAs are classified into type I (Werdnig-Hoffmann disease), type II (intermediate form), and type III (Kugelberg-Welander disease). Recently, two genes have been found to be associated with SMA. The survival motor neurone gene (SMN) is an SMA determining gene as it is absent in 98.6% of patients. A second gene, XS2G3, or the highly homologous neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein gene (NAIP) have been found to be more frequently deleted in type I than in the milder forms (types II and III). We investigated the correlation between the clinical phenotype and the genotype at this loci. A total of 106 patients were classified into type I (44), type II (31), and type III (31) and analysed using SMN, markers C212 and C272, and NAIP mapping upstream and downstream from SMN respectively. The combined analysis of all markers showed a large proportion of type I patients (43%) carried deletions of both SMN and its flanking markers (C212/272) and NAIP exon 5), as compared with none of the patients with type II or III SMA. The presence of large scale deletions involving these loci is specific to Werdnig-Hoffman disease (type I) and allows one to predict the severity of the disease in our series.

Interspecies diversity of the occludin sequence: cDNA cloning of human, mouse, dog, and rat-kangaroo homologues.

Occludin has been identified from chick liver as a novel integral membrane protein localizing at tight junctions (Furuse, M., T. Hirase, M. Itoh, A. Nagafuchi, S. Yonemura, Sa. Tsukita, and Sh. Tsukita. 1993. J. Cell Biol. 123:1777-1788). To analyze and modulate the functions of tight junctions, it would be advantageous to know the mammalian homologues of occludin and their genes. Here we describe the nucleotide sequences of full length cDNAs encoding occludin of rat-kangaroo (potoroo), human, mouse, and dog. Rat-kangaroo occludin cDNA was prepared from RNA isolated from PtK2 cell culture, using a mAb against chicken occludin, whereas the others were amplified by polymerase chain reaction based on the sequence found around the human neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein gene. The amino acid sequences of the three mammalian (human, murine, and canine) occludins were very closely related to each other (approximately 90% identity), whereas they diverged considerably from those of chicken and rat-kangaroo (approximately 50% identity). Implications of these data and novel experimental options in cell biological research are discussed.

Characterization of survival motor neuron (SMNT) gene deletions in asymptomatic carriers of spinal muscular atrophy.

Previous reports have established that the telomeric copy of the survival motor neuron (SMNT) gene and the intact copy of the neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein (NAIP) gene are preferentially deleted in patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Although deletions or mutations in the SMNT gene are most highly correlated with SMA, it is not clear to what extent NAIP or other genes influence the SMA phenotype, or whether a small fraction of SMA patients actually have functional copies of both SMNT and NAIP. To evaluate further the part of SMNT in the development of SMA, we analyzed 280 asymptomatic SMA family members for the presence or absence of SMNT exons 7 and 8. We report the following observations: (i) 4% of the sample harbored a polymorphic variant of SMNT exon 7 that looks like a homozygous deletion; (ii) approximately 1% of the parents are homozygously deleted for both exons 7 and 8; (iii) one asymptomatic parent lacking both copies of SMNT exons 7 and 8 displays a 'subclinical phenotype' characterized by mild neurogenic pathology; (iv) another asymptomatic parent lacking both SMNT exons showed no signs of motor neuron disorder by clinical and neurodiagnostic analyses. The demonstration of polymorphic variants of exon 7 that masquerade as homozygous nulls, and the identification of SMA parents who harbor two disease alleles, serve as a caution to those conducting prenatal tests with these markers.

Molecular analysis of the SMN and NAIP genes in Spanish spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) families and correlation between number of copies of cBCD541 and SMA phenotype.

Spinal muscular atrophy is an autosomal recessive disorder which affects about 1 in 10,000 individuals. The three clinical forms of SMA were mapped to the 5q13 region. Three candidate genes have been isolated and shown to be deleted in SMA patients: the Survival Motor Neuron gene (SMN), the Neuronal Apoptosis Inhibitory Protein gene (NAIP) and the XS2G3 cDNA. In this report we present the molecular analysis of the SMN exons 7 and 8 and NAIP exon 5 in 65 Spanish SMA families. NAIP was mostly deleted in type I patients (67.9%) and SMN was deleted in 92.3% of patients with severe and milder forms. Most patients who lacked the NAIP gene also lacked the SMN gene, but we identified one type II patient deleted for NAIP exon 5 but not for SMN exons 7 and 8. Two other patients carried deletions of NAIP exon 5 and SMN exon 7 but retained the SMN exon 8. Three polymorphic variants from the SMN gene, showing changes on the sequence of the centromeric (cBCD541) and telomeric copies of the SMN gene, were found. In addition, we show several genetic rearrangements of the telomeric SMN gene, which include duplication of this gene in one normal chromosome, and putative gene conversion events in affected and normal chromosomes. Altogether these results corroborate the high genetic variability of the SMA region. Finally, we have determined the ratio between the number of centromeric and telomeric copies of the SMN gene in parents of SMA patients, showing that the majority of parents of types II and III patients carried three or more copies of the cBCD541 gene; we suggest a relationship between the number of copies of cBCD541 and the disease phenotype.

Allelic association and deletions in autosomal recessive proximal spinal muscular atrophy: association of marker genotype with disease severity and candidate cDNAs.

The candidate region for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) has been defined as a 750 kb interval on 5q13. In this study, we performed allelic association studies in 154 German SMA families with the multicopy markers Ag1-CA (D5S1556); C212 (D5F149S1/S2) and correlated genotype data with deletion of candidate genes. Both multicopy markers recognize 0-3 alleles pro chromosome. Deletions were detected for all copies of the markers Ag1-CA (C272) and C212 in 13 of 88 (15%) type I SMA patients and three of 48 (6%) type II patients. In all informative cases, the deletion was inherited from one parent. In two further cases (one type I and one type III SMA), de novo deletions of only one copy of Ag1-CA and C212 were found. In both cases the patients were homozygously deleted for the survival motor neuron (SMN) gene (exons 7 and 8) but only the type I SMA patient was deleted for the neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein (NAIP) gene (exons 5 and 6). A third case (type II SMA) showed de novo deletion of SMN, but not of Ag1-CA, C212 and NAIP. Specific alleles of Ag1-CA and C212 showed significant association with SMA, particularly in type I SMA. When the number of marker copies defines genotypes, 1,1 (one allele on each chromosome) is found to be increased in type I SMA (50%) and 1,2 (one allele on one chromosome and two alleles on the other one) in type II SMA (60%). The 2,2 genotype (two alleles on each chromosome) was found in 4% of type I and II patients. By comparison, pooled normal genotype frequencies were 20, 44 and 36%, respectively. These results suggest a strong correlation between genotype and severity of disease. Based on these data we propose a model which indicates that type I SMA patients are composed of two severe alleles, type II of a mild and a severe, and type III of two mild alleles. Correlation of Ag1-CA genotype with deletion of the XS2G3/NAIP genes indicates that most patients with a deletion have a 1,1 genotype. Owing to the physical proximity of these markers, we propose that a large deletion occurs on type I SMA chromosomes that removes DNA between C212 and XS2G3/NAIP and that type II SMA results from compound heterozygosity for mild (small deletion) and severe mutations.