Clinical characterization and evaluation of DYT1 gene in Indian primary dystonia patients

Dystonia is a common movement disorder. The purpose of this study is to examine the relative distribution of the primary dystonia subtypes and identify mutation (s) in the DYT1 gene in Indian patients.

Primary dystonia patients (n = 178) and controls (n = 63), lacking any symptoms of the disease, were recruited for the study from eastern India. The nucleotide variants in the DYT1 gene were identified by carrying out polymerase chain reaction, single stranded conformation polymorphism, and DNA sequencing.

Unlike other reports, pain and/or tremor was more common in our sporadic patients than in familial cases. Three reported and two novel changes were identified in this gene. The homozygous genotype (G,G) for a missense variant (c.646G > C; Asp216His) was significantly over-represented in the patients compared with controls (P < 0.05). However, the commonly reported 3 bp deletion (904-906delGAG) was not detected.

Our results suggest that the DYT1 gene might have a limited role in causation of dystonia in the Indian population.