Compound heterozygous mutations in the ALDH3A2 gene cause Sjögren-Larsson syndrome: a case report

Abstract

Purpose: Sjögren-Larsson syndrome is a rare, autosomal, recessive neurocutaneous disorder caused by mutations in the ALDH3A2 gene, which encodes the fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme. Deficiency in fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase results in an abnormal accumulation of toxic fatty aldehydes in the brain and skin, which cause spasticity, intellectual disability, ichthyosis, and other clinical manifestations. We present the clinical features and mutation analyses of a case of SLS.

Materials and Methods: The family history and clinical data of the patient were collected. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples of the patient and her parents, and next-generation sequencing was performed. The candidate mutation sites that required further validation were then sequenced by Sanger sequencing. Bioinformatics software PSIPRED and RaptorX were used to predict the secondary and tertiary structures of proteins.

Results: The patient, a five-year-old girl with complaints of cough for three days and intermittent convulsions for seven hours, was admitted to the hospital. Other clinical manifestations included spastic paraplegia, mental retardation, tooth defects, and ichthyosis. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed periventricular leukomalacia. Genetic screening revealed compound heterozygous mutations in the ALDH3A2 gene: a frameshift mutation c.779delA (p.K260Rfs*6) and a missense mutation c.1157A > G (p.N386S). Neither of the ALDH3A2 alleles in the compound heterozygote patient were able to generate normal fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase, which were likely responsible for her phenotype of Sjögren-Larsson syndrome.

Conclusion: The compound heterozygous mutations found in the ALDH3A2 gene support the diagnosis of Sjögren-Larsson syndrome in the patient and expand the genotype spectrum of the gene.

Keywords:

• ALDH3A2
• compound heterozygous mutations
• frameshift mutation
• missense mutation
• Sjögren-Larsson Syndrome

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University for giving support and assistance to this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (grant no. ZR2019MH060) and the Research Fund for Lin He’ s Academician Workstation of New Medicine and Clinical Translation in Jining Medical University (grant no. JYHL2018FMS10).