Appel-Cresswell Silke, Guella Ilaria, Lehman Anna, Foti Dean, Farrer Matthew J
Pacific Parkinson's Research Centre and Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
J Mov Disord. 2018 Jan;11(1):45-48. doi: 10.14802/jmd.17066. Epub 2018 Jan 11.
Mutations in presenilin 1 () are the most common cause of autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease. Here, we report a Canadian-Vietnamese family carrying a p.Met233Val mutation with an exceptionally early and severe presentation that includes a wide range of atypical symptoms, including prominent ataxia, Parkinsonism, spasticity, dystonia, action tremor, myoclonus, bulbar symptoms, seizures, hallucinations and behavioral changes. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed on the affected proband after many assessments over several years proved diagnostically inconclusive. The results were analyzed using the AnnEx "Annotated Exomes" browser (http://annex.can.ubc.ca), a web-based platform that facilitates WES variant annotation and interpretation. High-throughput sequencing can be especially informative for complex neurological disorders, and WES warrants consideration as a first-line clinical test. Data analyses facilitated by web-based bioinformatics tools have great potential for novel insight, although confirmatory, diagnostically accredited Sanger sequencing is recommended prior to reporting.