Publication
Title
De novo mutations in the sodium-channel gene SCN1A cause severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy
Author
Abstract
Severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy (SMEI) is a rare disorder that occurs in isolated patients. The disease is characterized by generalized tonic, clonic, and tonic-clonic seizures that are initially induced by fever and begin during the first year of life. Later, patients also manifest other seizure types, including absence, myoclonic, andsimple and complex partial seizures. Psychomotor development stagnates around the second year of life. Missense mutations in the gene that codes for a neuronal voltage-gated sodium-channel α-subunit (SCN1A) were identified in families with generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS+). GEFS+ is a mild type of epilepsy associated with febrile and afebrile seizures. Because both GEFS+ and SMEI involve fever-associated seizures, we screened seven unrelated patients with SMEI for mutations in SCN1A. We identified a mutation in each patient: four had frameshift mutations, one had a nonsense mutation, one had a splice-donor mutation, and one had a missense mutation. All mutations are de novo mutations and were not observed in 184 control chromosomes.
Language
English
Source (journal)
The American journal of human genetics / American Society of Human Genetics [Bethesda, Md] - New York, N.Y., 1949, currens
Publication
New York, N.Y. : 2001
ISSN
0002-9297 [print]
1537-6605 [online]
DOI
10.1086/320609
Volume/pages
68 :6 (2001) , p. 1327-1332
ISI
000169094600003
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Publication type
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 08.10.2008
Last edited 04.03.2024
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