Background: Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a life-threatening and frequently fatal disorder triggered by commonly used anesthetics. MH susceptibility is a genetically determined predisposition to the development of MH. Mutations in the ryanodine receptor type 1 (RYR1) gene are the major cause of MH susceptibility. The authors sought to develop a reliable genetic screening strategy based on efficient and relatively inexpensive mutation-detection procedures.
Methods: A cohort (n = 30) of North American MH patients and MH-susceptible individuals was studied. RNA and DNA extracted from muscle tissue or blood lymphocytes were used for analysis. The entire RYR1 coding region was amplified in 57 overlapping fragments and subjected to denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography analysis followed by direct nucleotide sequencing to characterize RYR1 alterations.
Results: Nine previously reported and nine unknown RYR1 mutations were identified in 21 of 30 studied patients (70%). Some of the new mutations were located outside of known mutational "hot spots," suggesting that RYR1 contains previously unknown mutation-prone areas requiring analysis. The North American MH/MH-susceptible population is characterized by a high RYR1 allelic heterogeneity.
Conclusions: Denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography analysis of RNA samples extracted from the biopsied skeletal muscle followed by DNA sequencing is a highly efficient methodology for RYR1 mutation detection. This approach allows increasing the rate of mutation detection to 70% and identifying mutations in the entire RYR1 coding region.