Functional Studies of MLC1 Mutations in Chinese Patients with Megalencephalic Leukoencephalopathy with Subcortical Cysts

Megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts (MLC, MIM# 604004) is an autosomal recessive inherited disease mostly resulting from MLC1 mutations. In this study, we finished the functional analysis of MLC1 mutations identified recently in Chinese patients, including five newly described missense mutations (R22Q, A32V, G73E, A275T, Y278H), one known nonsense mutation (Y198X), and two known missense mutations (S69L, T118M). We found MLC1 wt was localized to the cell periphery, whereas mutant R22Q, A32V, G73E, S69L and T118M were trapped in the lumen of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) when we transfected the wild-type and mutant MLC1 in U373MG cells. Compared to wild type, the mutant G73E, T118M, Y198X and A275T transcript decreased and all mutants except R22Q had lower protein expression in transfected U373MG cells. Therefore, we propose that all these eight MLC1 mutations had functional effect either on their protein/mRNA expression, or on their intracellular protein localization, or both.