Spinal Muscular Atrophy - Causes

Causes

Spinal muscular atrophy is linked to a genetic mutation in the SMN1 gene.

Human chromosome 5 contains two nearly identical genes at location 5q13: a telomeric copy SMN1 and a centromeric copy SMN2. In healthy individuals, the SMN1 gene codes the survival of motor neuron protein (SMN) which, as its name says, plays a crucial role in survival of motor neurons. The SMN2 gene, on the other hand - due to a variation in a single nucleotide (840.C→T) - undergoes alternative splicing at the junction of intron 6 to exon 8, with only 10-20% of SMN2 transcripts coding a fully functional survival of motor neuron protein (SMN-fl) and 80-90% of transcripts resulting in a truncated protein compound (SMNΔ7) which is rapidly degraded in the cell.

In SMA-affected individuals, the SMN1 gene is mutated in such a way that it is unable to correctly code the SMN protein - due to either a deletion occurring at exon 7 or to other point mutations (frequently resulting in the functional conversion of the SMN1 sequence into SMN2). All patients, however, retain at least one copy of the SMN2 gene (with most having 2-4 of them) which still code small amounts of SMN protein - around 10-20% of the normal level - allowing neurons to survive. In the long run, however, reduced availability of the SMN protein results in gradual death of motor neuron cells in the anterior horn of spinal cord and the brain. Consequently, motor muscles undergo progressive atrophy.

Muscles of lower extremities are usually affected first, followed by muscles of upper extremities, spine and neck and, in more severe cases, pulmonary and mastication muscles. Proximal muscles are always affected earlier and in a greater degree than distal.

The severity of SMA symptoms is broadly related to how well the remaining SMN2 genes can make up for the loss of SMN1. This is partly related to the number of SMN2 gene copies present on the chromosome. Whilst healthy individuals carry two SMN2 gene copies, SMA patients can have anything between 1 and 4 (or more) of them, with the greater the number of SMN2 copies the milder the disease severity. Thus, most SMA type I babies have one or two SMN2 copies; SMA II and III patients usually have at least three SMN2 copies; and SMA IV patients normally have at least four of them. However, the correlation between symptom severity and SMN2 copy number is not absolute and there seem to exist other factors impacting on the disease phenotype.

Spinal muscular atrophy is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, which means that the defective gene is located on an autosome, and two copies of the defective gene - one from each parent - are required to inherit the disorder: the parents do not need to be themselves affected. SMA seems to appear de novo (i.e., without any hereditary causes) in around 2-4% of cases.

Spinal muscular atrophy affects individuals of all races, unlike other well known autosomal recessive disorders like sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis which have significant differences in occurrence rate between races. The overall incidence of SMA, of all types and across all ethnic groups, is in the range of 1 per 10,000 individuals; the gene frequency is thus around 1:100, therefore, approximately one in 50 persons are carriers. There are no known health consequences of being a carrier, and presently the only way one may know to consider the possibility is if a relative is affected.