Background: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD, autosomal dominant PKD or adult-onset PKD) is the most prevalent and potentially lethal kidney disease that is hereditary and lacks effective treatment. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) of embryos in assistant reproductive technology (ART) helps to select mutation-free embryos for blocking ADPKD inheritance from the parents to their offspring. However, there are multiple pseudogenes in the PKD1 coding region, which make blocking ADPKD inheritance by PGD complicated and difficult. Therefore, this technique has not been recommended and used routinely to ADPKD family plan.
Methods and results: Here, we report a new strategy of performing PGD in screening (target-) mutation-free embryos. We firstly used a long-range PCR amplification and next generation sequencing to identify the potential PKD1 mutant(s). After pathogenic variants were detected, multiple annealing and looping-based amplification cycles (MALBAC), a recently developed whole genome amplification method, was used to screen embryo cells. We successfully distinguished the mutated allele among pseudogenes and obtained mutation-free embryos for implantation. The first embryo transfer attempt resulted in a healthy live birth free of ADPKD condition and chromosomal anomalies which was confirmed by aminocentesis at week 18 of gestation, and by performing live birth genetic screening.
Conclusions: The first MALBAC-PGD attempt in ADPKD patient resulted in a healthy live birth free of ADPKD and chromosomal anomalies. MALBAC-PGD also enables selecting embryos without aneuploidy together and target gene mutation, thereby increasing implantation and live birth rates.
Keywords: Autosomal dominant; MALBAC; Polycystic kidney; Preimplantation diagnosis.