Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy in a patient with a rare loss-of-function KCNQ1 mutation

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a common manifestation of advanced cardiomyopathies. In a subset of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, VT is the initial and the cardinal manifestation of the disease. The molecular genetic basis of this subset of dilated cardiomyopathy is largely unknown.

We identified 10 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy who presented with VT and sequenced 14 common causal genes for cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias. Functional studies included cellular patch clamp, confocal microscopy, and immunoblotting. We identified nonsynonymous variants in 4 patients, including a rare missense p.R397Q mutation in the KCNQ1 gene in a 60-year-old man who presented with incessant VT and had mild cardiac dysfunction. The p.R397Q mutation was absent in an ethnically matched control group, affected a conserved amino acid, and was predicted by multiple algorithms to be pathogenic. Co-expression of the mutant KCNQ1 with its partner unit KCNE1 was associated with reduced tail current density of slowly activating delayed rectifier K(+) current (IKs). The mutation reduced membrane localization of the protein.

Dilated cardiomyopathy with an initial presentation of VT may be a forme fruste of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy caused by mutations in genes encoding the ion channels. The findings implicate KCNQ1 as a possible causal gene for arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy.