Monogenic and polygenic causes of low and extremely low LDL-C levels in patients referred to specialty lipid clinics: Genetics of low LDL-C

Background: In clinical setting, current standard-of-care does not include genetic testing for patients with low (<50 mg/dL) and extremely low (<20 mg/dL) levels of serum low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C).

Objective: We aimed identify the underlying molecular cause - both monogenic and polygenic - of low and extremely low LDL-C levels in a cohort of patients presenting to specialty lipid clinics.

Methods: Whole exome sequencing was done in patients with low or extremely low LDL-C not due to any secondary causes.

Results: Nine patients (4 women), ranging in age from 25 to 63 years old, with low or extremely low LDL-C levels were evaluated. Median LDL-C was 16 mg/dL (range undetectable - 43), total cholesterol 82 mg/dL (42 - 101), triglycerides 35 mg/dL (19-239), and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol 45 mg/dL (24-81). Of nine patients, two carried known pathogenic variants in APOB (one stop-gain, one deletion; LDL-C range undetectable -10 mg/dL); three patients had novel APOB heterozygous mutations (two frameshift deletions and one splice site; LDL-C range undectable-13 mg/dL); two had heterozygous APOB frameshift deletions previously reported as variants of unknown significance (LDL-C 18 mg/dL in both patients); one (LDL-C 43 mg/dL) had two heterozygous mutations in PCSK9, both previously reported to be benign; and one patient (LDL-C 16 mg/dL) had the APO E2/E2 genotype along with several variants of unknown significance in genes associated with triglycerides. No patients had an LDL-C polygenic risk score below the 5th percentile (range 26th percentile to 93rd percentile).

Conclusion: We found APOB mutations to be the most common molecular defect in patients presenting to lipid clinics with low or extremely low LDL-C . Whether clinical genetic testing and LDL-C polygenic risk scores have any utility - other than diagnostic purposes - for such patients remains unclear. In addition, further efforts may be needed to better reclassify pathogenicity of variants of unknown significance.