A novel truncating variant of SPAST associated with hereditary spastic paraplegia indicates a haploinsufficiency...

Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are genetic neurodegenerative diseases. The most common form of pure HSP that is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner is spastic paraplegia type 4 (SPG4), which is caused by mutations in the SPAST gene. Different theories have been proposed as the mechanism underlying SPAST-HSP for different types of genetic mutations, including gain- and loss-of-function mechanisms. To better understand the mutation mechanisms, we performed genetic analysis and investigated a truncating SPAST variant that segregated with disease in one family.

We described a pure HSP pedigree with family members across four generations. We performed genetic analysis and investigated a novel frameshift pathogenic variant (c.862_863dupAC, p. H289Lfs^*27) in this family. We performed reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Sanger sequencing, and quantitative RT-PCR using total RNA from an Epstein-Barr virus-induced lymphoblastoid cell line produced from the proband. We also performed Western blotting on cell lysates to investigate if the protein expression of spastin is affected by this variant.

This variant (c.862_863dupAC, p. H289Lfs^*27) co-segregated with pure HSP in this family and is not registered in any public database. Measurement of SPAST transcripts in lymphoblasts from the proband demonstrated a reduction of SPAST transcript levels through likely nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. Immunoblot analyses demonstrated a reduction of spastin protein expression levels in lymphoblasts.

We report an SPG4 family with a novel heterozygous frameshift variant p.H289Lfs^*27 in SPAST. Our study implies haploinsufficiency as the pathogenic mechanism for this variant and expands the known mutation spectrum of SPAST.