A novel splice site mutation in OTC gene of a female with ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency and her asymptomatic mosaic father

Pathogenic variants of ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency: Nation-wide study in Japan and literature review

Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTCD) is an X-linked disorder. Several male patients with OTCD suffer from severe hyperammonemic crisis in the neonatal period, whereas others develop late-onset manifestations, including hyperammonemic coma. Females with heterozygous pathogenic variants in the OTC gene may develop a variety of clinical manifestations, ranging from asymptomatic conditions to severe hyperammonemic attacks, owing to skewed lyonization. We reported the variants of CPS1, ASS, ASL and OTC detected in the patients with urea cycle disorders through a nation-wide survey in Japan. In this study, we updated the variant data of OTC in Japanese patients and acquired information regarding genetic variants of OTC from patients with OTCD through an extensive literature review. The 523 variants included 386 substitution (330 missense, 53 nonsense, and 3 silent), eight deletion, two duplication, one deletion-insertion, 55 frame shift, two extension, and 69 no category (1 regulatory and 68 splice site error) mutations. We observed a genotype-phenotype relation between the onset time (neonatal onset or late onset), the severity, and genetic mutation in male OTCD patients because the level of deactivation of OTC significantly depends on the pathogenic OTC variants. In conclusion, genetic information about OTC may help to predict long-term outcomes and determine specific treatment strategies, such as liver transplantation, in patients with OTCD.

Hyperammonemia in a girl who inherited a likely pathogenic variant of the ornithine transcarbamylase gene from her asymptomatic father-A peculiar pattern of X-linked recessive inheritance

A three-year-old Chinese girl presented with hyperammonemia was diagnosed biochemically and genetically (heterozygous for a novel likely pathogenic missense variant c.476T>A) as having ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, a rare X-linked recessive urea cycle disorders. Extensive family genetic screening eventually revealed paternal gonadosomatic mosaicism.