• Valentina Pecoraro, Jessica Mandrioli, Chiara Carone, Adriano Chiò, Bryan J Traynor, and Tommaso Trenti.
• Laboratory of Toxycology and Advanced Diagnostics, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Ospedale Civile S. Agostino Estense, Modena, Italy.
• Eur. J. Clin. Invest. 2020 May 1; 50 (5): e13228.

BackgroundMore than 30 causative genes have been identified in familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a powerful and groundbreaking tool to identify disease-associated variants. Despite documented advantages of NGS, its diagnostic reliability needs to be addressed in order to use this technology for specific routine diagnosis.Material And MethodsLiterature database was explored to identify studies comparing NGS and Sanger sequencing for the detection of variants causing ALS. We collected data about patients' characteristics, disease type and duration, NGS and Sanger properties.ResultsMore than 200 bibliographic references were identified, of which only 14 studies matching our inclusion criteria. Only 2 out of 14 studies compared results of NGS analysis with the Sanger sequencing. Twelve studies screened causative genes associated to ALS using NGS technologies and confirmed the identified variants with Sanger sequencing. Overall, data about more 2,000 patients were analysed. The number of genes that were investigated in each study ranged from 1 to 32, the most frequent being FUS, OPTN, SETX and VCP. NGS identified already known mutations in 21 genes, and new or rare variants in 27 genes.ConclusionsNGS seems to be a promising tool for the diagnosis of ALS in routine clinical practice. Its advantages are represented by an increased speed and a lowest sequencing cost, but patients' counselling could be problematic due to the discovery of frequent variants of unknown significance.© 2020 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation.

26 keywords...

hide…