Stretch-activated ion channel TMEM63B associates with developmental and epileptic encephalopathies and progressive neurodegeneration.

Vetro, Annalisa; Pelorosso, Cristiana; Balestrini, Simona; Masi, Alessio; Hambleton, Sophie; Argilli, Emanuela; Conti, Valerio; Giubbolini, Simone; Barrick, Rebekah; Bergant, Gaber; Writzl, Karin; Bijlsma, Emilia K; Brunet, Theresa; Cacheiro, Pilar; Mei, Davide; Devlin, Anita; Hoffer, Mariëtte J V; Machol, Keren; Mannaioni, Guido; Sakamoto, Masamune; Menezes, Manoj P; Courtin, Thomas; Sherr, Elliott; Parra, Riccardo; Richardson, Ruth; Roscioli, Tony; Scala, Marcello; von Stülpnagel, Celina; Smedley, Damian; Torella, Annalaura; Tohyama, Jun; Koichihara, Reiko; Hamada, Keisuke; Ogata, Kazuhiro; Suzuki, Takashi; Sugie, Atsushi; van der Smagt, Jasper J; van Gassen, Koen; Valence, Stephanie; Vittery, Emma; Malone, Stephen; Kato, Mitsuhiro; Matsumoto, Naomichi; Ratto, Gian Michele; Guerrini, Renzo     «

Vetro, Annalisa; Pelorosso, Cristiana; Balestrini, Simona; Masi, Alessio; Hambleton, Sophie; Argilli, Emanuela; Conti, Valerio; Giubbolini, Simone; Barrick, Rebekah; Bergant, Gaber; Writzl, Karin; Bijlsma, Emilia K; Brunet, Theresa; Cacheiro, Pilar; Mei, Davide; Devlin, Anita; Hoffer, Mariëtte J V; Machol, Keren; Mannaioni, Guido; Sakamoto, Masamune; Menezes, Manoj P; Courtin, Thomas; Sherr, Elliott; Parra, Riccardo; Richardson, Ruth; Roscioli, Tony; Scala, Marcello; von Stülpnagel, Celina; Smed...     »

By converting physical forces into electrical signals or triggering intracellular cascades, stretch-activated ion channels allow the cell to respond to osmotic and mechanical stress. Knowledge of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying associations of stretch-activated ion channels with human disease is limited. Here, we describe 17 unrelated individuals with severe early-onset developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE), intellectual disability, and severe motor and cortical visual impairment associated with progressive neurodegenerative brain changes carrying ten distinct heterozygous variants of TMEM63B, encoding for a highly conserved stretch-activated ion channel. The variants occurred de novo in 16/17 individuals for whom parental DNA was available and either missense, including the recurrent p.Val44Met in 7/17 individuals, or in-frame, all affecting conserved residues located in transmembrane regions of the protein. In 12 individuals, hematological abnormalities co-occurred, such as macrocytosis and hemolysis, requiring blood transfusions in some. We modeled six variants (p.Val44Met, p.Arg433His, p.Thr481Asn, p.Gly580Ser, p.Arg660Thr, and p.Phe697Leu), each affecting a distinct transmembrane domain of the channel, in transfected Neuro2a cells and demonstrated inward leak cation currents across the mutated channel even in isotonic conditions, while the response to hypo-osmotic challenge was impaired, as were the Ca2+ transients generated under hypo-osmotic stimulation. Ectopic expression of the p.Val44Met and p.Gly580Cys variants in Drosophila resulted in early death. TMEM63B-associated DEE represents a recognizable clinicopathological entity in which altered cation conductivity results in a severe neurological phenotype with progressive brain damage and early-onset epilepsy associated with hematological abnormalities in most individuals.      «

By converting physical forces into electrical signals or triggering intracellular cascades, stretch-activated ion channels allow the cell to respond to osmotic and mechanical stress. Knowledge of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying associations of stretch-activated ion channels with human disease is limited. Here, we describe 17 unrelated individuals with severe early-onset developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE), intellectual disability, and severe motor and cortical visual im...     »