Affiliations 

  • 1 Molecular Diagnostics and Protein Unit, Specialized Diagnostics Centre, Institute for Medical Research (IMR), Jalan Pahang, 50588 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Genetics Department, Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Jalan Pahang, 50586 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Biomed Res Int, 2018;2018:4320831.
PMID: 30175132 DOI: 10.1155/2018/4320831

Abstract

Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTCD), an X-linked disorder that results from mutations in the OTC gene, causes hyperammonemia and leads to various clinical manifestations. Mutations occurring close to the catalytic site of OTCase can cause severe OTCD phenotypes compared with those caused by mutations occurring on the surface of this protein. In this study, we report two novel OTC missense mutations, Q171H and N199H, found in Malaysian patients. Q171H and N199H caused neonatal onset OTCD in a male and late OTCD in a female, respectively. In silico predictions and molecular docking were performed to examine the effect of these novel mutations, and the results were compared with other 30 known OTC mutations. In silico servers predicted that Q171H and N199H, as well as 30 known missense mutations, led to the development of OTCD. Docking analysis indicated that N-(phosphonoacetyl)-L-ornithine (PALO) was bound to the catalytic site of OTCase mutant structure with minimal conformational changes. However, the mutations disrupted interatomic interactions in the catalytic site. Therefore, depending on the severity of disruption occurring at the catalytic site, the mutation may affect the efficiency of mechanism and functions of OTCase.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.