Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan.
Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu, Japan.
J Inherit Metab Dis. 2021 Sep;44(5):1226-1234. doi: 10.1002/jimd.12408. Epub 2021 Jun 9.
The loss-of-function variants of the human asparagine synthetase (ASNS) gene cause asparagine synthetase deficiency (ASNSD). Diagnosis of ASNSD requires genetic tests because a specific biochemical diagnostic for ASNSD is not available. There are a few reports describing the functional evaluation of ASNS variants. Therefore, in vitro methods are needed to evaluate the detected variants in patients. In this report, five types of human ASNS proteins (wild-type and our reported four variants: p.Leu145Ser, p.Leu247Trp, p.Val489Asp, and p.Trp541Cysfs*5) were expressed in silkworm using a baculoviral expression system. An enzymatic activity assay of ASNS was performed, and the concentration of asparagine by ninhydrin and High Performance Liquid Chromatography methods using the purified recombinant proteins was measured. We established ASNS deficient HEK293 cells using the CRISPR/Cas9 method and evaluated the growth of cells without asparagine after transduction of ASNS variants with a lentiviral expression system. The four ASNS variants displayed significantly low enzymatic activity. The ASNS deficient HEK293 cells transduced with wild-type ASNS grew without asparagine, whereas cells transduced with the variants did not grow or showed significantly slower growth than cells transduced with wild-type ASNS. Herein, we established a method for evaluating the enzymatic activity of the recombinant human ASNS variants. The results of the cell-based assay corroborated the results of the enzymatic activity. These methods should enable the evaluation of the pathogenicity of ASNS variants.
人天冬酰胺合成酶(ASNS)基因的失活变异会导致天冬酰胺合成酶缺乏症(ASNSD)。ASNSD 的诊断需要进行基因检测,因为目前尚无特定的生化诊断方法。有一些报道描述了 ASNS 变异体的功能评估。因此,需要体外方法来评估患者中检测到的变异体。在本报告中,使用杆状病毒表达系统在桑蚕中表达了 5 种类型的人 ASNS 蛋白(野生型和我们报道的 4 种变体:p.Leu145Ser、p.Leu247Trp、p.Val489Asp 和 p.Trp541Cysfs*5)。进行了 ASNS 的酶活性测定,并使用纯化的重组蛋白通过茚三酮和高效液相色谱法测量了天冬酰胺的浓度。我们使用 CRISPR/Cas9 方法建立了 ASNS 缺陷型 HEK293 细胞,并使用慢病毒表达系统转导 ASNS 变体后评估了没有天冬酰胺的细胞的生长情况。这 4 种 ASNS 变体显示出明显低的酶活性。转导野生型 ASNS 的 ASNS 缺陷型 HEK293 细胞在没有天冬酰胺的情况下生长,而转导变体的细胞则无法生长或比转导野生型 ASNS 的细胞生长明显缓慢。在此,我们建立了一种评估重组人 ASNS 变体酶活性的方法。细胞测定的结果与酶活性的结果相符。这些方法应该能够评估 ASNS 变体的致病性。