CRB1-Related Leber Congenital Amaurosis: Reporting Novel Pathogenic Variants and a Brief Review on Mutations Spectrum

Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) is a rare inherited retinal disease causing severe visual impairment in infancy. It has been reported that 9-15% of LCA cases have mutations in CRB1 gene. The complex of CRB1 protein with other associated proteins affects the determination of cell polarity, orientation, and morphogenesis of photoreceptors. Here, we report three novel pathogenic variants in CRB1 gene and then briefly review the types, prevalence, and correlation of reported mutations in CRB1 gene. Whole exome sequencing and targeted gene panel were employed. Then validation in the patient and segregation analysis in affected and unaffected members was performed. Our detected novel pathogenic variants (p.Glu703*, c.2128+1G>A and p.Ser758SerfsX33) in CRB1 gene were validated by Sanger sequencing. Segregation analysis confirmed the inheritance pattern of the pathogenic variants. Our findings show that emerging the next-generation sequencing-based techniques is very efficient in identifying causative variants in disorders with locus heterogeneity.