Timely diagnosis of sitosterolemia by next generation sequencing in two children with severe hypercholesterolemia

Severe hypercholesterolemia associated or not with xanthomas in a child may suggest the diagnosis of homozygous autosomal dominant hypercholesterolemia (ADH), autosomal recessive hypercholesterolemia (ARH) or sitosterolemia, depending on the transmission of hypercholesterolemia in the patient's family. Sitosterolemia is a recessive disorder characterized by high plasma levels of cholesterol and plant sterols due to mutations in the ABCG5 or the ABCG8 gene, leading to a loss of function of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) heterodimer transporter G5-G8.

We aimed to perform the molecular characterization of two children with severe primary hypercholesterolemia.

Case #1 was a 2 year-old girl with high LDL-cholesterol (690 mg/dl) and tuberous and intertriginous xanthomas. Case #2 was a 7 year-old boy with elevated LDL-C (432 mg/dl) but no xanthomas. In both cases, at least one parent had elevated LDL-cholesterol levels. For the molecular diagnosis, we applied targeted next generation sequencing (NGS), which unexpectedly revealed that both patients were compound heterozygous for nonsense mutations: Case #1 in ABCG5 gene [p.(Gln251*)/p.(Arg446*)] and Case #2 in ABCG8 gene [p.(Ser107*)/p.(Trp361*)]. Both children had extremely high serum sitosterol and campesterol levels, thus confirming the diagnosis of sisterolemia. A low-fat/low-sterol diet was promptly adopted with and without the addition of ezetimibe for Case #1 and Case #2, respectively. In both patients, serum total and LDL-cholesterol decreased dramatically in two months and progressively normalized.

Targeted NGS allows the rapid diagnosis of sitosterolemia in children with severe hypercholesterolemia, even though their family history does not unequivocally suggest a recessive transmission of hypercholesterolemia. A timely diagnosis is crucial to avoid delays in treatment.