Vici syndrome is a recessively inherited multisystem disorder characterized by callosal agenesis, cataracts, cardiomyopathy, combined immunodeficiency and hypopigmentation. To investigate the molecular basis of Vici syndrome, we carried out exome and Sanger sequence analysis in a cohort of 18 patients. We identified recessive mutations in EPG5 (previously KIAA1632), indicating a causative role in Vici syndrome. EPG5 is the human homologue of the metazoan-specific autophagy gene epg-5, encoding a key autophagy regulator (ectopic P-granules autophagy protein 5) implicated in the formation of autolysosomes. Further studies demonstrated a severe block of autophagosomal clearance in muscle and fibroblasts from EPG5 mutant patients, resulting in autophagic cargo accumulation in autophagosomes. These findings indicate Vici syndrome as a paradigm of a human multisystem disorder associated with defective autophagy, and suggest a fundamental role of the autophagy pathway in the anatomical and functional formation of organs such as the brain, the heart and the immune system.

A de novo 9q33.3-q34.11 microdeletion involving STXBP1 has been found in one of four individuals (group A) with early-onset West syndrome, severe hypomyelination, poor visual attention, and developmental delay. Although haploinsufficiency of STXBP1 was involved in early infantile epileptic encephalopathy in a previous different cohort study (group B), no mutations of STXBP1 were found in two of the remaining three subjects of group A (one was unavailable). We assumed that another gene within the deletion might contribute to the phenotype of group A. SPTAN1 encoding alpha-II spectrin, which is essential for proper myelination in zebrafish, turned out to be deleted. In two subjects, an in-frame 3 bp deletion and a 6 bp duplication in SPTAN1 were found at the initial nucleation site of the alpha/beta spectrin heterodimer. SPTAN1 was further screened in six unrelated individuals with WS and hypomyelination, but no mutations were found. Recombinant mutant (mut) and wild-type (WT) alpha-II spectrin could assemble heterodimers with beta-II spectrin, but alpha-II (mut)/beta-II spectrin heterodimers were thermolabile compared with the alpha-II (WT)/beta-II heterodimers. Transient expression in mouse cortical neurons revealed aggregation of alpha-II (mut)/beta-II and alpha-II (mut)/beta-III spectrin heterodimers, which was also observed in lymphoblastoid cells from two subjects with in-frame mutations. Clustering of ankyrinG and voltage-gated sodium channels at axon initial segment (AIS) was disturbed in relation to the aggregates, together with an elevated action potential threshold. These findings suggest that pathological aggregation of alpha/beta spectrin heterodimers and abnormal AIS integrity resulting from SPTAN1 mutations were involved in pathogenesis of infantile epilepsy.

Recent progress in genetic analysis reveals that a significant proportion of cryptogenic epileptic encephalopathies are single-gene disorders. Mutations in numerous genes for early-onset epileptic encephalopathies have been rapidly identified, including in SPTAN1, which encodes α-II spectrin. The aim of this review is to delineate SPTAN1 encephalopathy as a distinct clinical syndrome. To date, a total of seven epileptic patients with four different in-frame SPTAN1 mutations have been identified. The major clinical features of SPTAN1 mutations include epileptic encephalopathy with hypsarrhythmia, no visual attention, acquired microcephaly, spastic quadriplegia and severe intellectual disability. Brainstem and cerebellar atrophy and cerebral hypomyelination, as observed by magnetic resonance imaging, are specific hallmarks of this condition. A milder variant is characterized by generalized epilepsy with pontocerebellar atrophy. Only in-frame SPTAN1 mutations in the last two spectrin repeats in the C-terminal region lead to dominant negative effects and these specific phenotypes. The last two spectrin repeats are required for α/β spectrin heterodimer associations and the mutations can alter heterodimer formation between the two spectrins. From these data we suggest that SPTAN1 encephalopathy is a distinct clinical syndrome owing to specific SPTAN1 mutations. It is important that this syndrome is recognized by pediatric neurologists to enable proper diagnostic work-up for patients.

To investigate layer-specific molecule expression in human developing neocortices, we performed immunohistochemistry of the layer-specific markers (TBR1, FOXP1, SATB2, OTX1, CUTL1, and CTIP2), using frontal neocortices of the dorsolateral precentral gyri of 16 normal controls, aged 19 gestational weeks to 1 year old, lissencephalies of 3 Miller-Dieker syndrome (MDS) cases, 2 X-linked lissencephaly with abnormal genitalia (XLAG) cases, and 4 Fukuyama-type congenital muscular dystrophy (FCMD) cases. In the fetal period, we observed SATB2+ cells in layers II-IV, CUTL1+ cells in layers II-V, FOXP1+ cells in layer V, OTX1+ cells in layers II or V, and CTIP2+ and TBR1+ cells in layers V and VI. SATB2+ and CUTL1+ cells appeared until 3 months of age, but the other markers disappeared after birth. Neocortices of MDS and XLAG infants revealed SATB2+, CUTL1+, FOXP1+, and TBR1+ cells diffusely located in the upper layers. In fetal FCMD neocortex, neurons labeled with the layer-specific markers located over the glia limitans. The present study provided new knowledge indicating that the expression pattern of these markers in the developing human neocortex was similar to those in mice. Various lissencephalies revealed abnormal layer formation by random migration.

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