ALG13-CDG in a male with seizures, normal cognitive development, and normal transferrin isoelectric focusing

Am J Med Genet A. 2017 Oct;173(10):2772-2775. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.a.38377. Epub 2017 Aug 4.

Abstract

ALG13-CDG has been recently discovered as a disorder of severe developmental, intellectual and speech disability, microcephaly, visual abnormalities, seizures, hepatomegaly, coagulation abnormalities, and abnormal serumtransferrin isoelectric focusing in serum. A male with seizures, delayed motor, and speech development, but normal cognition carried a hemizygous, predicted pathogenic ALG13 variant (p.E463G). N-glycosylation studies in plasma were normal. ICAM-1 expression was decreased in patient fibroblasts, supporting the variant's pathogenicity. Adding D-galactose to the patient's fibroblast culture increased ICAM-1 expression in vitro, offering a potential treatment option in ALG13-CDG. The present report is a new example for an N-glycosylation disorder, that may present with normal transferrin isoform analysis, and also demonstrates, that CDG type I patients can have normal cognitive development.

Keywords: ICAM-1; galactose; glycosylation; normal TIEF; seizures.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Child, Preschool
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation / genetics*
  • Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation / pathology
  • Glycosylation
  • Humans
  • Isoelectric Focusing
  • Male
  • Mutation*
  • N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases / genetics*
  • Seizures / genetics*
  • Seizures / pathology
  • Transferrin / metabolism*

Substances

  • Transferrin
  • ALG13 protein, human
  • N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases