Identification of novel FUS and TARDBP gene mutations in Chinese amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients with HRM analysis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive loss of motor neurons. More than 30 genes have been linked to ALS to date, including and , which exhibit similar roles in RNA metabolism. This study explored the use of high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis to screen for and mutation hotspot regions in 146 Chinese ALS patients, which achieved 100% detection. Two mutations were observed in two different familial ALS probands, a missense mutation (p.R521H) and a novel splicing mutation (c.1541+1G>A). Five mutations were identified in six ALS patients, including a novel 3'UTR mutation (c.*731A>G) and four missense mutations (p.G294V, p.M337V, p.G348V, and p.I383V). We found that mutations were present in 1.4% of Chinese ALS patients, whereas mutations were responsible for 4.1% of Chinese ALS cases. Here, we describe the accuracy of using highly sensitive HRM analysis to identify two novel and mutations in Chinese sporadic and familial ALS cases. Our study contributes to the further understanding of the genetic and phenotypic diversity of ALS.