Mutation analysis of urea cycle disorders

Abstract

Urea cycle disorders (UCDs) are a group of autosomal or X-linked, recessively inherited errors of metabolism that lead to severe neurological disease due to insufficient detoxification of excess nitrogen. The resulting hyperammonemia is the key feature of UCDs, but at the same time only a surrogate marker. In the majority of cases, a sole biochemical analysis is indicative but not diagnostic. Therefore, additional means are required and mutation analysis is the method of choice for confirmation in most cases of UCD. In addition to confirming the diagnosis, mutation analysis enables genetic counseling and prenatal testing and contributes to new research approaches. All genes involved in any of the enzymatic (namely the genes for N-acetylglutamate synthase, NAGS; carbamoylphosphate synthetase, CPS1; ornithine transcarbamylase, OTC; argininosuccinate synthetase, ASS1; argininosuccinate lyase, ASL; arginase, ARG1) or transporter steps (namely the genes for the ornithine/citrulline antiporter ORNT1, SLC25A15; glutamate/aspartate antiporter citrin, SLC25A13) of the urea cycle are known and thus accessible for genetic testing. In most situations, direct Sanger sequencing using DNA from peripheral blood cells can be done but there are exceptions to this such as in the case of the relatively large CPS1 gene which renders RNA based mutation analysis an attractive alternative. With this review, we provide an overview on the current methods used for mutation analysis of each UCD gene, we mention possible pitfalls and their solutions, and discuss alternative methods which may become standard in the future.