We present a 14-year-old girl with loss of motor functions, tetraplegia, epilepsy and nystagmus, caused by a novel heteroplasmic m.641A>T transition in an evolutionary conserved region of mitochondrial genome, affecting the aminoacyl stem of mitochondrial tRNA-Phe. In silico prediction, respirometry, Western blot and enzymatic analyses in skin fibroblasts support the pathogenicity of the m.641A>T substitution. This is the 18th MT-TF point mutation associated with a mitochondrial disorder. The onset and the severity of the disease, however, is unique in this case and broadens the clinical picture related to mutations of mitochondrial tRNA-Phe.
Keywords: Encephalopathy; Epilepsy; MT-TF; Mitochondrial disease; Transfer RNA(Phe); mtDNA.
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