Overview

Pathogenicity: Alzheimer's Disease : Not Classified, Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy
ACMG/AMP Pathogenicity Criteria: PS1, PS2, PS3, PM1, PM2
Clinical Phenotype: Alzheimer's Disease, Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy
Coding/Non-Coding: Both
DNA Change: Duplication
Expected RNA Consequence: Duplication
Expected Protein Consequence: Duplication
Genomic Region: Chromosome 21

Findings

This ~6.3Mb duplication harboring seven genes from LINC00158 to CYYR1, including APP, was found in a French man with sporadic early onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Rovelet-Lecrux et al., 2015). The diagnosis was definite AD with Braak stage VI, Thal stage V (Lanoiselée et al., 2017). Symptoms emerged at age 44. The patient (EXT 773) was homozygous for APOE3. The duplication was detected by analyzing the APP locus on chromosome 21 using quantitative multiplex PCR of short fluorescent fragments (QMPSF)—a method that simultaneously amplifies multiple short genomic sequences. Genetic analysis of the parents failed to reveal a duplication, indicating the mutation arose de novo.

APP duplications are rare or absent from the general population (Sharp et al., 2005). However, they may be a relatively common cause of familial AD, at least in some populations. This may be due to APP being in a recombination hotspot that harbors multiple low copy repeats (Sleegers et al., 2006; Rovelet-Lecrux et al., 2006).

Neuropathology
Post-mortem examination of the proband’s brain revealed neuropathology consistent with AD (Rovelet-Lecrux et al., 2015). Moreover, severe cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) was detected in the middle frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal cortex, and primary motor area (Lanoiselée et al., 2017). Amyloid deposition in blood vessel walls was also observed in the insula and basal ganglia. In addition, Lewy bodies were reported in the amygdala, locus niger, nucleus basalis of Meynert, and entorhinal cortex.

Biological Effect
The biological effect of this specific APP duplication is unknown, but a study of multiple carriers of APP duplications showed that, as expected, the median levels of APP mRNA in blood were approximately 1.4-fold higher in carriers compared with non-carriers (Pottier et al., 2012). However, variability between duplications and individual carriers suggests other factors, such as the specific genes included in the duplication, may modulate expression (e.g., Lott and Head, 2019).

Pathogenicity

Alzheimer's Disease : Not Classified*

*This variant fulfilled some ACMG-AMP criteria, but it was not classified by Alzforum, because only one affected carrier has been reported without co-segregation data, and the variant is absent—or very rare—in the gnomAD database.

This variant fulfilled the following criteria based on the ACMG/AMP guidelines. See a full list of the criteria in the Methods page.

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References

Paper Citations

1. Rovelet-Lecrux A, Charbonnier C, Wallon D, Nicolas G, Seaman MN, Pottier C, Breusegem SY, Mathur PP, Jenardhanan P, Le Guennec K, Mukadam AS, Quenez O, Coutant S, Rousseau S, Richard AC, Boland A, Deleuze JF, Frebourg T, Hannequin D, Campion D, CNR-MAJ collaborators. De novo deleterious genetic variations target a biological network centered on Aβ peptide in early-onset Alzheimer disease. Mol Psychiatry. 2015 Sep;20(9):1046-56. Epub 2015 Jul 21 PubMed.
2. Lanoiselée HM, Nicolas G, Wallon D, Rovelet-Lecrux A, Lacour M, Rousseau S, Richard AC, Pasquier F, Rollin-Sillaire A, Martinaud O, Quillard-Muraine M, de la Sayette V, Boutoleau-Bretonniere C, Etcharry-Bouyx F, Chauviré V, Sarazin M, le Ber I, Epelbaum S, Jonveaux T, Rouaud O, Ceccaldi M, Félician O, Godefroy O, Formaglio M, Croisile B, Auriacombe S, Chamard L, Vincent JL, Sauvée M, Marelli-Tosi C, Gabelle A, Ozsancak C, Pariente J, Paquet C, Hannequin D, Campion D, collaborators of the CNR-MAJ project. APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2 mutations in early-onset Alzheimer disease: A genetic screening study of familial and sporadic cases. PLoS Med. 2017 Mar;14(3):e1002270. Epub 2017 Mar 28 PubMed.
3. Sharp AJ, Locke DP, McGrath SD, Cheng Z, Bailey JA, Vallente RU, Pertz LM, Clark RA, Schwartz S, Segraves R, Oseroff VV, Albertson DG, Pinkel D, Eichler EE. Segmental duplications and copy-number variation in the human genome. Am J Hum Genet. 2005 Jul;77(1):78-88. Epub 2005 May 25 PubMed.
4. Sleegers K, Brouwers N, Gijselinck I, Theuns J, Goossens D, Wauters J, Del-Favero J, Cruts M, van Duijn CM, Van Broeckhoven C. APP duplication is sufficient to cause early onset Alzheimer's dementia with cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Brain. 2006 Nov;129(Pt 11):2977-83. Epub 2006 Aug 18 PubMed.
5. Rovelet-Lecrux A, Hannequin D, Raux G, Le Meur N, Laquerrière A, Vital A, Dumanchin C, Feuillette S, Brice A, Vercelletto M, Dubas F, Frebourg T, Campion D. APP locus duplication causes autosomal dominant early-onset Alzheimer disease with cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Nat Genet. 2006 Jan;38(1):24-6. Epub 2005 Dec 20 PubMed.
6. Pottier C, Wallon D, Lecrux AR, Maltete D, Bombois S, Jurici S, Frebourg T, Hannequin D, Campion D. Amyloid-β protein precursor gene expression in alzheimer's disease and other conditions. J Alzheimers Dis. 2012;28(3):561-6. PubMed.
7. Lott IT, Head E. Dementia in Down syndrome: unique insights for Alzheimer disease research. Nat Rev Neurol. 2019 Mar;15(3):135-147. PubMed.

Further Reading

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