Leonardo Caporali, Luisa Iommarini, Chiara La Morgia, Anna Olivieri, Alessandro Achilli, Alessandra Maresca, Maria Lucia Valentino, Mariantonietta Capristo, Francesca Tagliavini, Valentina Del Dotto, Claudia Zanna, Rocco Liguori, Piero Barboni, Michele Carbonelli, Veronica Cocetta, Monica Montopoli, Andrea Martinuzzi, Giovanna Cenacchi, Giuseppe De Michele, Francesco Testa, Anna Nesti, Francesca Simonelli, Anna Maria Porcelli, Antonio Torroni, Valerio Carelli
We here report on the existence of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) associated with peculiar combinations of individually non-pathogenic missense mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants, affecting the MT-ND4, MT-ND4L and MT-ND6 subunit genes of Complex I. The pathogenic potential of these mtDNA haplotypes is supported by multiple evidences: first, the LHON phenotype is strictly inherited along the maternal line in one very large family; second, the combinations of mtDNA variants are unique to the two maternal lineages that are characterized by recurrence of LHON; third, the Complex I-dependent respiratory and oxidative phosphorylation defect is co-transferred from the proband's fibroblasts into the cybrid cell model...
February 14, 2018: PLoS Genetics