Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Karen Baty, Sila Hopton, Dr Isabell Cordts, Gavin Falkous, Professor Robert Taylor
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
© 2020 The Authors. Progressive external ophthalmoplegia is typically associated with single or multiple mtDNA deletions but occasionally mtDNA single nucleotide variants within mitochondrial transfer RNAs (mt-tRNAs) are identified. We report a 34-year-old female sporadic patient with progressive external ophthalmoplegia accompanied by exercise intolerance but neither fixed weakness nor multisystemic involvement. Histopathologically, abundant COX-deficient fibres were present in muscle with immunofluorescence analysis confirming the loss of mitochondrial complex I and IV proteins. Molecular genetic analysis identified a rare heteroplasmic m.15990C>T mt-tRNAPro variant reported previously in a single patient with childhood-onset myopathy. The variant in our patient was restricted to muscle. Single muscle fibre analysis identified higher heteroplasmy load in COX-deficient fibres than COX-normal fibres, confirming segregation of high heteroplasmic load with a biochemical defect. Our case highlights the phenotypic variability typically observed with pathogenic mt-tRNA mutations, whilst the identification of a second case with the m.15990C>T mutation not only confirms pathogenicity but shows that de novo mt-tRNA point mutations can arise in multiple, unrelated patients.
Author(s): Joshi PR, Baty K, Hopton S, Cordts I, Falkous G, Schoser B, Blakely EL, Taylor RW, Deschauer M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Neuromuscular Disorders
Year: 2020
Volume: 30
Issue: 4
Pages: 346-350
Print publication date: 01/04/2020
Online publication date: 15/04/2020
Acceptance date: 27/02/2020
Date deposited: 29/04/2020
ISSN (print): 0960-8966
ISSN (electronic): 1873-2364
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nmd.2020.02.020
DOI: 10.1016/j.nmd.2020.02.020
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
