Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Screening of calpain-3 autolytic activity in LGMD muscle: a functional map of CAPN3 gene mutations

Abstract

Background: The diagnosis of calpainopathy is obtained by identifying calpain-3 protein deficiency or CAPN3 gene mutations. However, in many patients with limb girdle muscular dystrophy type 2A (LGMD2A), the calpain-3 protein quantity is normal because loss-of-function mutations cause its enzymatic inactivation. The identification of such patients is difficult unless a functional test suggests pursuing a search for mutations.

Materials and methods: A functional in vitro assay, which was able to test calpain-3 autolytic function, was used to screen a large series of muscle biopsy specimens from patients with unclassified LGMD/hyperCKaemia who have previously shown normal calpain-3 protein quantity.

Results: Of 148 muscle biopsy specimens tested,17 samples (11%) had lost normal autolytic function. CAPN3 gene mutations were identified in 15 of 17 patients (88%), who account for about 20% of the total patients with LGMD2A diagnosed in our series.

Conclusions: The loss of calpain-3 autolytic activity is highly predictive of primary calpainopathy, and the use of this test as part of calpainopathy diagnosis would improve the rate of disease detection markedly. This study provides the first evidence of the pathogenetic effect of specific CAPN3 gene mutations on the corresponding protein function in LGMD2A muscle and offers new insights into the structural–functional relationship of the gene and protein regions that are crucial for the autolytic activity of calpain-3.

  • LGMD, limb girdle muscular dystrophy
  • LGMD2A, limb girdle muscular dystrophy type 2A
  • SSCP, single-strand conformational polymorphism
  • TTBS, Tris-buffered saline with Tween-20

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.