Mild hyperphenylalaninaemia (HPA) is an autosomal recessive inherited disease that
occurs as a consequence of an inborn aberration of hydroxylation of phenylalanine
due to deficiency of phenylalanine hydroxylase. Consequently, a disturbance in the
metabolism of phenylalanine to tyrosine results in elevated blood levels of
phenylalanine (Phe). Mild HPA has the same etiology as phenylketonuria (PKU), but
in the case of mild HPA the disease presents itself in milder form with moderately to
mildly elevated blood levels of Phe. There is no causal treatment of the disease. In the
case of severe forms of the disease or heavily increased Phe levels, introduction of
dietary treatment limiting the Phe intake is necessary. Newborn screening of PKU in
Slovenia was implemented in 1979. The aim of this master's thesis was to evaluate
the link between Phe concentrations in patients with mild HPA and the genotype of
the PAH gene. The analysis was carried out on 97 patients with mild HPA who had
the Phe concentration higher than 200 μmol/L. We have detected 22 genetic variants
on 194 independent alleles. Two variants per individual were detected in 21 patients,
one per individual in 39 patients while there were no variants in the remaining ones.
The genetic variant p.R408W in exon 12 was the most frequent variant detected in
this study. Other frequent variants were p.A403V, p.R158Q, p.A300S and p.E390G.
Among 21 patients with two variants, 19 different genotypes were identified, where
two combinations were more common, namely: p.A403V in combination with
p.D415N and p.A403V in combination with p.Phe55fs. We have also identified two
novel previously unidentified variants (p.W326X and p.V45I). We compared defined
set of genetic variants in patients with HPA to genetic variants previously identified
among Slovenian PKU patients who, as expected, showed differences in spectrum
and frequency. The most important difference was that there were no causal genetic
variants in homozygous form present in the mild HPA group. The average value of
phenylalanine in subjects with mild HPA and without any causal genetic variant in
the PAH gene was 129 μmol/L, among subjects with one identified causal variant 157
μmol/L and among subjects with two identified causal variants 300 μmol/L. We
demonstrated statistically significant association between genotype and metabolic
phenotype of patients with mild HPA.
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