Abstract
Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are protongated Na+ channels. They have been implicated with synaptic transmission, pain perception as well as mechanoperception. ASIC4 is the most recent member of this gene family. It shows expression throughout the central nervous system with strongest expression in pituitary gland. ASIC4 is inactive by itself and its function is unknown. Mutations in ion channel subunits, which are homologues of ASICs lead to neurodegeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans. It has, therefore, been speculated that similar mutations in ASICs may be responsible for neurodegeneration in humans. Here, we show that ASIC4 maps to the long arm of chromosome 2 in close proximity to the locus for paroxysmal dystonic choreoathetosis (PDC), a movement disorder with unknown cause. Ion channel genes have been shown to cause several other paroxysmal neurologic disorders and are important candidate genes for PDC. We established the genomic organisation of the ASIC4 gene and screened a PDC pedigree for mutations in the coding region. Although we identified three polymorphisms in the Cterminal part of the ASIC4 protein, these were not present in each affected subject in the PDC kindred we analysed. Therefore, although the ASIC4 gene is physically mapped to the PDC locus, our data indicates that ASIC4 gene mutation is not the cause of PDC. It remains to be established if mutations in ASIC4 or other ASIC subunits may cause neurological disorders.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr M Pfister for help with the population frequencies. This work has been supported by a grant of the Attempto research group programme of the Universitätsklinikum Tübingen (FG 1-0-0) to S Gründer and by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NINDS R01NS33645, R01NS36177 and R01NS38713) and Department of Veterans Affairs (Merit Review) to JK Fink.
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Gründer, S., Geisler, HS., Rainier, S. et al. Acid-sensing ion channel (ASIC) 4 gene: physical mapping, genomic organisation, and evaluation as a candidate for paroxysmal dystonia. Eur J Hum Genet 9, 672–676 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200699
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200699