COLQ-related congenital myasthenic syndrome: An integrative view

Congenital myasthenic syndromes are inherited disorders caused by mutation in components of the neuromuscular junction and manifest early in life. Mutations in COLQ gene result in congenital myasthenic syndrome. Here, we present the analysis of data from 209 patients from 195 unrelated families highlighting genotype-phenotype correlation. In addition, we describe a COLQ homozygous variant a new patient and discuss it utilizing the Phyre2 and I-TASSER programs. Clinical, molecular genetics, imaging (MRI), and electrodiagnostic (EEG, EMG/NCS) evaluations were performed. Our data showed 89 pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants including 35 missenses, 21 indels, 14 nonsense, 14 splicing, and 5 large deletions variants. Eight common variants were responsible for 48.46% of those. Weakness in proximal muscles, hypotonia, and generalized weakness were detected in all individuals tested. Apart from the weakness, extensive clinical heterogeneity was noted among patients with COLQ-related patients based on their genotypes—those with variants affecting the splice site exhibited more severe clinical features while those with missense variants displayed milder phenotypes, suggesting the role of differential splice variants in multiple functions within the muscle. Analyses and descriptions of these COLQ variants may be helpful in clinical trial readiness and potential development of novel therapies in the setting of established structure-function relationships.