Case Report: A Case of Epileptic Disorder Associated With a Novel CNTN2 Frameshift Variant in Homozygosity due to Maternal Uniparental Disomy

• Main Authors: Wenjie Chen, Fei Chen, Yiping Shen, Zhixian Yang, Jiong Qin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-01
• Series: Frontiers in Genetics
• Subjects: CNTN2; epilepsy; uniparental disomy (UPD); neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD); genotype-phenotype correlation
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2021.743833/full

Background: Contactin 2, encoded by CNTN2 on chromosome 1q32.1, is a neural-specific glycoprotein and plays important roles in neurodevelopment. A deleterious homozygous variant in the CNTN2 gene was previously reported to cause autosomal recessive cortical myoclonic tremor and epilepsy. Since then, there has been no further report confirming the association of CNTN2 and epilepsy. Here, we reported one new case, who presented with epilepsy, carrying a novel homozygous frameshift variant in CNTN2. The clinical and genetic features of the patient were reviewed.Case presentation: The male patient presented with preschool age-of-onset neurodevelopmental impairment and focal seizures of temporal origin, and responded to valproate. A trio-whole exome sequencing revealed a novel homozygous frameshift variant in CNTN2 (c.2873_c.2874delCT, p.Thr958Thrfs). The patient’s mother was a heterozygous carrier while his father was wild-type; they were both unaffected and non-consanguineous. Further study revealed that maternal uniparental disomy (1q32.1) unmasked the heterozygous variant of CNTN2 in the proband.Conclusions: This case enhanced the gene–disease relationship between CNTN2 and epilepsy, which will help to further understand this emerging disorder.