Expression analysis of NF1-mutated alleles in a rare compound heterozygous spinal NF1 patient by digital PCR

Backgroud: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a heterogeneous neurocutaneous disorder. Spinal neurofibromatosis (SNF) is a distinct clinical entity of NF1, characterized by bilateral neurofibromas involving all spinal nerve roots. Although both forms are caused by intragenic heterozygous variants of NF1, missense variants have been associated with SNF, according to a dominant inheritance model causing haploinsufficiency. Most patients carry pathogenic variants in one of the NF1 alleles; nevertheless, patients with both NF1-mutated copies have been described. Interestingly, all NF1 variants carried by the known SNF compound heterozygotes were missense/splicing variants or in-frame insertion-deletions.

Aims: To investigate whether there is a differential expression of NF1 variant alleles in an NF1 compound heterozygous SNF patient possibly contributing to clinical phenotype.

Materials & methods: We performed an allele-specific expression study, by chip-based digital PCR, in an SNF family carrying two NF1 missense variants. We evaluated the expression levels of the two NF1-mutated alleles both carried by the compound heterozygous SNF patient and his relatives.

Results: Both alleles were expressed at comparable levels in the patient and hyper-expressed compared to the wild-type alleles of healthy controls.

Discussion: Here we provide new insights into expression studies of NF1-mutated transcripts suggesting that a novel pathogenetic mechanism, caused by gain-of-function variants, could be associated with SNF.

Conclusions: Further studies should be performed in larger cohorts, opening new perspectives in the NF1 pathogenesis comprehension.