Late-onset cobalamin C deficiency Chinese sibling patients with neuropsychiatric presentations

Sheng-jun Wang, Chuan-zhu Yan, Yi-ming Liu, Yu-ying Zhao

The Cobalamin C deficiency (cblC), characterized with elevated methylmalonic acidemia and homocystinuria in plasma, is an inborn error of cobalamin metabolism. The late-onset cblC siblings patients were rarely reported. In this study, we analyzed the clinical presentations and treatment outcomes of late-onset cblC in Chinese sibling patients with neuropsychiatric presentations. The clinical data of four pairs of Chinese patients were retrospectively analyzed. Serum homocysteine, urine organic acids measurements, neuroimaging exams and gene analysis were carried out in all patents. Patients were reevaluated after treatments with cobalamin, folate, betaine, L-carnitine and compound vitamin B. The mean age at disease onset was 13.7 (range 2-19) years. The neuropsychiatric disturbances including cognitive decline (3/8), psychiatric disturbances (4/8), gait instability (2/8), lower extremity weakness and numbness (3/8) and thromboembolic events (1/8). Two patients suffered nephropathy. The mean serum homocysteine when patients were diagnosed was 109.4 (range 69.5-138) μM/L. The abnormal radioimaging included scoliosis by X-ray (5/6), cerebral atrophy (4/6) and spinal cord atrophy (3/6) by MRI scan. Three pairs of siblings showed heterozygous mutations of MMACHC gene including c.482G > A (4/6), c.354G > C (2/6), c.570insT (2/6), c.445_446del (2/6) and c.656_4658del (2/6). The other two siblings showed homozygous mutation with c.452A > G in MMACHC gene. After treatments, the psychiatric symptoms were obviously relieved in all the patients. In Chinese siblings with late-onset cblC, the main clinic manifestation and abnormal radioimaging were cognitive decline and cerebral atrophy respectively. The most common gene mutation was c.482G > A of MMACHC gene. The patients responded well to the treatments.