A review of the genetic background in complicated WT1-related disorders

The Wilms tumor 1 (WT1) gene was first identified in 1990 as a strong candidate for conferring a predisposition to Wilms tumor. The WT1 protein has four zinc finger structures (DNA binding domain) at the C-terminus, which bind to transcriptional regulatory sequences on DNA, and acts as a transcription factor. WT1 is expressed during kidney development and regulates differentiation, and is also expressed in glomerular epithelial cells after birth to maintain the structure of podocytes. WT1-related disorders are a group of conditions associated with an aberrant or absent copy of the WT1 gene. This group of conditions encompasses a wide phenotypic spectrum that includes Denys-Drash syndrome (DDS), Frasier syndrome (FS), Wilms-aniridia-genitourinary-mental retardation syndrome, and isolated manifestations of nephropathy or Wilms tumor. The genotype-phenotype correlation is becoming clearer: patients with missense variants in DNA binding sites including C2H2 sites manifest DDS and develop early-onset and rapidly developing end-stage kidney disease. A deeper understanding of the genotype-phenotype correlation has also been obtained in DDS, but no such correlation has been observed in FS. The incidence of Wilms tumor is higher in patients with DDS and exon-truncating variants than in those with non-truncating variants. Here, we briefly describe the genetic background of this highly complicated WT1-related disorders.