Newborn Screening for Mucopolysaccharidoses: Results of a Pilot Study with 100 000 Dried Blood Spots

To test, in a newborn screening (NBS) laboratory, the performance of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to assay 5 enzymatic activities in dried blood spots (DBS) for NBS of 5 lysosomal storage diseases (mucopolysaccharidosis [MPS]-II, MPS-IIIB, MPS-IVA, MPS-VI, and MPS-VII).

Three mm punches from de-identified DBS were obtained from the Washington NBS laboratory and submitted to the 5-plex LC-MS/MS assay. Screen cut-offs were established by analyzing the enzymatic activity in patients confirmed to have the MPS disorder. DNA sequencing of the relevant gene was performed on a second DBS punch for all samples with enzyme activity below 10% of the mean daily activity.

(1) For MPS-II, 18 below cut-off samples, 1 pathogenic genotype, and 2 "high risk" genotypes; (2) For MPS-IIIB, no below cut-off samples; (3) For MPS-IVA, 8 below cut-off samples, 4 non-pathogenic genotypes, 4 genotypes unobtainable; (4) For MPS-VI, 4 below cut-off samples and no high-risk genotypes; (5) For MPS-VII, 1 below cut-off sample confirmed by genotype and clinical report to be affected.

These results establish that the number of initial screen positive samples is low and manageable. Thus, population newborn screening for these conditions is feasible in a state newborn screening laboratory.