Mutations in several NM causal genes have been attributed to the majority of NM cases, particularly mutations in nebulin and skeletal muscle α‑actin 1 (ACTA1), which are responsible for ~70% of cases; therefore, a genetic diagnostic strategy using targeted gene sequencing may potentially improve the diagnosis of suspected NM.
Mutations in the skeletal muscle actin gene, ACTA1 are responsible for up to 20% of congenital myopathies with a variety of pathologies that includes nemaline myopathy, intranuclear rod myopathy, actin myopathy and congenital fibre type disproportion.In their review of 2003, Sparrow et al. considered how these actin mutations might affect muscle function at the molecular level and thus cause the disease.
The type 1 fiber atrophy and clusters of rods in normal size muscle fibers supported the diagnosis of congenital NM and prompted genetic molecular testing, which led to discovery of the novel ACTA1 variant causative of the myopathy.
Here we report for the first time three patients with severe nemaline myopathy and mutations of the ACTA1 stop codon: TAG>TAT (tyrosine), TAG>CAG (glutamine) and TAG>TGG (tryptophan).
Mutations in ACTA1 have been associated with different pathologic findings including nemaline myopathy, intranuclear rod myopathy, actin myopathy, cap myopathy, congenital fiber type disproportion, and core myopathy.
Autosomal dominant nemaline myopathy with intranuclear rods due to mutation of the skeletal muscle ACTA1 gene: clinical and pathological variability within a kindred.
We raise the possibility that the presence or absence of structural disorganization when mutant actin incorporates into sarcomeres may be an important determinant of whether the histological patterns of CFTD or NM develop in ACTA1 myopathy.
A considerable number of missense mutations in the sarcomeric actin gene ACTA1 have been discovered in patients with nemaline myopathy and also in a few patients without myopathological evidence of nemaline bodies in biopsied skeletal muscle fibres.
A de novo dominant mutation in ACTA1 causing congenital nemaline myopathy associated with a milder phenotype: expanding the spectrum of dominant ACTA1 mutations.
Results of 164 muscle biopsies from 124 Australian and North American patients with primary nemaline myopathy were reviewed, including biopsies from 19 patients with nemaline myopathy due to alpha-actin (ACTA1) mutations and three with mutations in alpha-tropomyosin(SLOW) (TPM3).
We present a series of ACTA1-related cases from a Brazilian cohort of 23 patients with nemaline myopathy, diagnosed after Sanger sequencing the entire coding region of ACTA1, and review the literature on ACTA1-related nemaline myopathy.
Defining alpha-skeletal and alpha-cardiac actin expression in human heart and skeletal muscle explains the absence of cardiac involvement in ACTA1nemaline myopathy.
We identified five novel missense mutations in ACTA1, which suggested that mutations in muscle alpha-skeletal actin account for the disease in approximately 15% of patients with NM.
Patients with nemaline myopathy secondary to mutations in the skeletal muscle alpha-actin (ACTA1) gene showed diffuse involvement of thigh and leg muscles with relative sparing of the gastrocnemii.
This present report describes an infantile onset of nemaline myopathy with a milder clinical course and non-fatal HCM as compared with previous cases, showing clinical diversity in skeletal and cardiac manifestations of conditions associated with ACTA1 mutations.