Dataset Information

Association of Sex With Frequent and Mild ABCA4 Alleles in Stargardt Disease.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

The mechanisms behind the phenotypic variability and reduced penetrance in autosomal recessive Stargardt disease (STGD1), often a blinding disease, are poorly understood. Identification of the unknown disease modifiers can improve patient and family counseling and provide valuable information for disease management.

Objective

To assess the association of incompletely penetrant ABCA4 alleles with sex in STGD1.

Design, setting, and participants

Genetic data for this cross-sectional study were obtained from 2 multicenter genetic studies of 1162 patients with clinically suspected STGD1. Unrelated patients with genetically confirmed STGD1 were selected. The data were collected from June 2016 to June 2019, and post hoc analysis was performed between July 2019 and January 2020.

Main outcomes and measures

Penetrance of reported mild ABCA4 variants was calculated by comparing the allele frequencies in the general population (obtained from the Genome Aggregation Database) with the genotyping data in the patient population (obtained from the ABCA4 Leiden Open Variation Database). The sex ratio among patients with and patients without an ABCA4 allele with incomplete penetrance was assessed.

Results

A total of 550 patients were included in the study, among which the mean (SD) age was 45.7 (18.0) years and most patients were women (311 [57%]). Five of the 5 mild ABCA4 alleles, including c.5603A>T and c.5882G>A, were calculated to have incomplete penetrance. The women to men ratio in the subgroup carrying c.5603A>T was 1.7 to 1; the proportion of women in this group was higher compared with the subgroup not carrying a mild allele (difference, 13%; 95% CI, 3%-23%; P = .02). The women to men ratio in the c.5882G>A subgroup was 2.1 to 1, and the women were overrepresented compared with the group carrying no mild allele (difference, 18%; 95% CI, 6%-30%; P = .005).

Conclusions and relevance

This study found an imbalance in observed sex ratio among patients harboring a mild ABCA4 allele, which concerns approximately 25% of all patients with STGD1, suggesting that STGD1 should be considered a polygenic or multifactorial disease rather than a disease caused by ABCA4 gene mutations alone. The findings suggest that sex should be considered as a potential disease-modifying variable in both basic research and clinical trials on STGD1.

SUBMITTER: Runhart EH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7441467 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:ImportanceProbing differences in disease prevalence between sexes is challenging, especially in mendelian diseases. Independent replication of any association study is warranted.ObjectiveTo evaluate whether the recently reported association between sex and mild ABCA4 alleles among patients with autosomal recessive Stargardt disease (STGD1) is reproducible.Design, setting, and participantsSequencing and clinical data from 644 unrelated patients with genetically confirmed STGD1 were analyzed in a cross-sectional study at the Department of Ophthalmology, Columbia University, New York, New York. Data were collected from June 1999 to October 2020.Main outcomes and measuresSex, best-corrected visual acuity, and age at onset among patients with STGD1 with and without mild ABCA4 alleles.ResultsA total of 644 patients with STGD1 with at least 2 pathogenic variants were included in the study. The mean (SD) age was 38.6 (17.2) years, and 352 participants (54.7%) were female. The proportion of women was slightly higher in the entire cohort and in most allele categories, although none of the differences were statistically significant. The proportion of women carrying the c.5603A>T p.(Asn1868Ile) allele was 7% (95% CI, -9 to 23) higher than in the subgroup not carrying any mild alleles (P = .32). The proportion of women carrying the c.5882G>A p.(Gly1961Glu) allele was 2% (95% CI, -12 to 15) higher than in the subgroup not carrying any mild alleles (P = .77). The difference between the total mild allele subcohort and the no mild allele subcohort was 3% (95% CI, -8 to 14; P = .48). Compared with patients in the no mild allele category, patients with mild alleles exhibited significantly delayed disease onset (mean [SD] age, 23.1 [11.6] for those with the c.5882G>A allele and 31.7 [13.5] years for those with the c.5603A>T allele vs 18.6 [11.8] years for those with no mild alleles; P < .001) and preserved visual acuity (5882G>A subgroup: mean [SD] logMAR, 0.65 [0.66]; 95% CI, 0.63-0.68; c.5603A>T subgroup: 0.64 [0.39]; 95% CI, 0.58-0.70; those with no mild alleles: 1.00 [0.57]; 95% CI, 0.96-1.03; P < .001).Conclusions and relevanceThis independent analysis of a larger cohort of individuals with Stargardt disease did not support the association between sex and certain mild ABCA4 alleles. While sex is undoubtedly an important variable in medicine, its putative association with clinical outcomes should be rigorously scrutinized.