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Updated: Nov 19, 2025

Real-Time Fluorescent Measurement of Synaptic Functions in Models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Published on: July 16, 2021
[Rare variants of HSPB1 are probably associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]
Junyi Chen1, Xiangyi Liu1, Yingsheng Xu1
1Department of Neurology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China.
Objective:
To explore the association between rare HSPB1 variants and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Methods:
We performed next-generation sequencing for 166 Chinese ALS patients to screen for possible pathogenic rare variants of HSPB1. The control individuals were obtained from 1000 Genome Project and an in-house whole-exome sequencing database. The Sequence Kernel Association Test (SKAT) and the SKAT-optimal test (SKAT-O) were used to identify the association between rare HSPB1 variants and ALS.
Results:
We identified 3 possible pathogenic rare variants of HSPB1 (all were missenses), including c.379C>T (p.R127W), c.446A>C (p.D149A) and c.451A>C (p.T151P). Compared with 1000 Genome Project, SKAT p=3.61×10-7 and SKAT-O p=1.62×10-6; while compared with the in-house database, SKAT p=9.99×10-4, SKAT-O p= 1.80×10-3. We analyzed the phenotypes of rare HSPB1 variant carriers and found no specific clinical characteristics associated with these variants.
Conclusions:
Rare variants of HSPB1 are probably associated with the pathogenesis of ALS.
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