Abstract:
Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a common genetic
disorder in humans. PKD1 is the major responsible gene, accounting for 85% of ADPKD
cases. This gene comprises a long reiterated sequence at 5’ part, causing difficulty in its
molecular study. PKD1 encodes an integral membrane protein, polycystin-1, which is
thought to have a function in cell-cell and cell-matrix interaction. To date, more than 250
PKD1 mutations have been identified without a particular hot spot on the gene. However,
from most of the data generated by the studies of Western ADPKD patients; very few were
reported from Thai patients. In the present study, ten unrelated Thai ADPKD patients were
examined for PKD1 mutations and polymorphisms. Long reverse-transcription polymerase
chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification of the full-length PKD1-specific mRNA transcripts
(13.6 kb) from lymphocytes followed by generation of nine overlapping nested-PCR product
were performed for analysis of the entire coding region of PKD1. Multiple restriction
fragment-single strand conformation polymorphism (MRF-SSCP) technique was developed
for screening mutation in the nested-PCR products. The mutations and polymorphisms
identified from the analysis of cDNA were confirmed by examination of genomic DNA,
using the long-range PCR (LR-PCR) for amplifications of PKD1-specific regions,
encompassing either exons 2-13 (7,508 bp) or exons 14-33 (18,099 bp), followed by nested
PCR of the interested region and direct DNA sequencing.
Three PKD1 mutations were identified in this study, two of which were known splicing
defect, IVS13-2A>T and frameshift deletion, c.5225_5226delAG in exon 15, and one was a
novel in-frame deletion, L3287del, in exon 29. All mutations were located in the reiterated
part of PKD1 gene. The splicing defect, IVS13-2A>T previously identified in a Thai family
PK015 was directly detected by allele specific amplification (ASA) in family PK035 in the
present study. Different haplotypes associated with this mutation in two families indicates
their different ancestral origins. A frameshift deletion (c.5225_5226delAG) previously
reported in Caucasian was found in all patients of family PK039, resulting in frameshift
translation beginning at codon 1672 and premature stop at codon 1768. This mutation could
be directly detected either by restriction analysis with Eco0109 I or by heteroduplex analysis
(HA) in the SSCP gel. An in-frame deletion (L3287del) found in family PK002 occurred at
the highly conserved leucine in the second transmembrane domain of polycystin-1. The
L3287del mutation could be detected in members of family PK002 by HA. Most affected
persons in this family had early onset of the disease which appeared sooner in the next
generation. In addition, seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (six novel and one
reported) were identified in this study. The known SNP was found to be linked with the
disease phenotype in one large PKD1 family (PK007) which variance was instrumental for
tracking the disease allele in this family.