Pediatric onset neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses: Unraveling clinical and genetic specifications

Objective: To unravel the clinical and genetic specifications of Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL).

Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Pediatric Neurology Children Hospital and University of Child Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan from March 2017 to March 2022. The primary outcome was to measure genotype-phenotype correlation by segregation of phenotypes according to genotype. The secondary outcomes included a correlation between genotype and distribution of age(s) of onset.

Results: One hundred fifty three patients clinically diagnosed with NCL underwent genetic testing and pathologic mutation was identified in 32.7% of patients. About 59.6% were male and 37.2% had an affected sibling. The median age was 5.46±1.95 years at the onset of the first symptom i.e., myoclonic seizures in 68%, and motor difficulty in 24%. Other features found were global developmental delay (56%), hypotonia (23%), visual impairment (80%), ataxia (22%), and disc pallor (56%). The most common type was CLN6 (Ceroid lipofuscinosis neuronal) (42%), CLN2 (16%) followed by CLN7 (12%). When 50 patients with recognized mutations were compared with 103 patients with no mutation, family history (p=0.049), early visual loss (p=0.016), hypotonia (p=0.001), white matter signals (p=0.026) and pan-atrophy(p=0.047) was statistically significant in the genetically confirmed NCL. Multiple pairwise comparisons indicated that the estimated age of onset for the CLN1 and CLN2 mutation group was significantly lower than other genotypes including CLN6 (p 0.012), CLN10 (p 0.007) and CLN12 (p 0.007).

Conclusion: Following a detailed review of NCL symptomatology, a clinically-oriented approach should be used for a rapid diagnosis with confirmation by targeted molecular testing for future genetic counseling.