Natural history of deoxyguanosine kinase deficiency

Deoxyguanosine kinase deficiency is one genetic cause of mtDNA depletion syndrome. Its major phenotypes include neonatal/infantile-onset hepatocerebral disease, isolated hepatic disease and myopathic disease. In this retrospective study, we seek to describe the natural history of deoxyguanosine kinase deficiency and identify any genotype-phenotype correlations.

Retrospective literature search and collation of data from genetically confirmed cases of deoxyguanosine kinase deficiency.

173 cases of DGUOK deficiency were identified. Neonatal/infantile-onset hepatocerebral disease accounted for 128 (74%) of cases. Isolated liver disease was seen in 36 (21%) and myopathic disease in 9 (5%) of cases. The most frequently involved systems were liver (98%), brain (75%), growth (46%) and gastrointestinal tract (26%). Infantile-onset disease typically presented with cholestatic jaundice and lactic acidosis. Neurological involvement included hypotonia, nystagmus and developmental delay with MRI brain abnormalities in about half of cases. Missense variants accounted for 48% of all pathogenic variants while variants resulting in truncated transcripts accounted for 39%. Prognosis was poor, especially for neonatal/ infantile-onset hepatocerebral disease for which 1 year survival was 11%. Twenty-three patients received liver transplants, of whom 12 died within 2 years of transplant. Patients with two truncating variants had a higher risk of death and were more likely to have the neonatal/infantile-onset hepatocerebral disease phenotype. No blood biomarker predictive of neurological involvement was identified. Earlier onset correlated with increased mortality.

There is a narrow window for therapeutic intervention. For the hepatocerebral disease phenotype, median age of onset was 1 month while the median age of death was 6.5 months implying rapid disease progression.