To date, 18 missense mutations in the adult skeletal muscle sodium channel alpha-subunit (SCN4A) gene have been identified to cause a spectrum of muscular diseases, including PMC of von Eulenburg, PMC without cold paralysis, potassium-aggravating myotonia, and hyperkalemic periodic paralysis.
Twenty different point mutations have been identified in the gene coding for the alpha subunit of the adult skeletal muscle sodium channel in families with hyperkalemic periodic paralysis, paramyotonia congenita, and the potassium-aggravated myotonias.
The inherited diseases hyperkalemic periodic paralysis and paramyotonia congenita are caused by mutations in the adult skeletal muscle sodium channel gene.
We tested the hypothesis that hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (without myotonia) and paramyotonia congenita are tightly linked to the tetrodotoxin-sensitive adult skeletal muscle sodium channel gene on chromosome 17q23-25 in two large pedigrees.
Genetic analysis of nine HYPP families has shown tight linkage between the adult skeletal muscle sodium channel alpha-subunit gene on chromosome 17q and the disease (lod score, z = 24; recombination frequency 0 = 0), strongly suggesting that mutations of the alpha-subunit gene cause HYPP.
DNA from seven unrelated patients with hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP) was examined for mutations in the adult skeletal muscle sodium channel gene (SCN4A) known to be genetically linked to the disorder.