A Rare Coincidence of Sitosterolemia and Familial Mediterranean Fever Identified by Whole Exome Sequencing

J Atheroscler Thromb. 2016 Jul 1;23(7):884-90. doi: 10.5551/jat.34827. Epub 2016 May 10.

Abstract

Whole exome sequencing (WES) technologies have accelerated genetic studies of Mendelian disorders, yielding approximately 30% diagnostic success. We encountered a 13-year-old Japanese female initially diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia on the basis of clinical manifestations of severe hypercholesterolemia (initial LDL cholesterol=609 mg/dl at the age of one) and systemic intertriginous xanthomas with histories of recurrent self-limiting episodes of fever and arthritis. Both her phenotypes seemed to co-segregate in a recessive manner. We performed WES on this patient, who was considered a proband. Among 206,430 variants found in this individual, we found 18,220 nonsense, missense, or splice site variants, of which 3,087 were rare (minor allele frequency ≤ 0.01 or not reported) in 1000 Genome (Asian population). Filtering by assuming a recessive pattern of inheritance with the use of an in silico annotation prediction tool, we successfully narrowed down the candidates to the compound heterozygous mutations in the ABCG5 gene (c.1256G>A or p.Arg419His/c.1763-1G>A [splice acceptor site]) and to the double-compound heterozygous mutations in the MEFV gene (c.329T>C/C or p.Leu110Pro/c.442G>C/C or p.Glu148Val). The patient was genetically diagnosed with sitosterolemia and familial Mediterranean fever using WES for the first time. Such a comprehensive approach is useful for identifying causative mutations for multiple unrelated inheritable diseases.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily G, Member 5 / genetics*
  • Adolescent
  • Cholesterol, LDL / metabolism
  • Computational Biology
  • Exome / genetics*
  • Familial Mediterranean Fever / genetics*
  • Familial Mediterranean Fever / pathology
  • Female
  • Genome, Human
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Humans
  • Hypercholesterolemia / genetics*
  • Hypercholesterolemia / pathology
  • Intestinal Diseases / genetics*
  • Intestinal Diseases / pathology
  • Lipid Metabolism, Inborn Errors / genetics*
  • Lipid Metabolism, Inborn Errors / pathology
  • Lipoproteins / genetics*
  • Phytosterols / adverse effects*
  • Phytosterols / genetics
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / genetics*

Substances

  • ABCG5 protein, human
  • ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily G, Member 5
  • Cholesterol, LDL
  • Lipoproteins
  • Phytosterols

Supplementary concepts

  • Sitosterolemia