Genetic and Clinical Analysis in a Cohort of Patients with Wilson's Disease in Southwestern China.

Background and Aims: Wilson's disease (WD), characterized by a disorder of copper metabolism, is an inherited autosomal recessive disease caused by mutations in the ATP7B gene.
Methods: To explore genotype-phenotype correlations in Chinese WD patients and to evaluate the frequency of the ATP7B mutations, we described 77 clinically and biochemically confirmed WD patients and detected mutations in ten WD families from southwestern China. Clinical features were presented and all the exons of the ATP7B gene were screened.
Results: The appearance of Kayser-Fleischer (K-F) rings was closely related to onset age, particularly before 10 years old. For those patients with predominantly neurological symptoms, MRI was the most sensitive and preferred examination. Eight mutations of the ATP7B gene were detected including seven reported mutations (c.2302dup, c.2304delC, c.2333 G>T, c.2621 C>T, c.2755 C>G, c.2975 C>T and c.1366 G>C) and four novel mutations (c.3446 G>A, c.3767insCA, c.3406 G>A and c.3700delG). c.2333 G>T was detected in 6/20 alleles (30%), accounting for the largest proportion, which could be regarded as a mutation hotspot in this region.
Conclusions: Our study extends the mutation spectrum of ATP7B and analyzes the relationship between mutations in the ATP7B gene and clinical findings of WD.
(Copyright © 2015 IMSS. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)