Mutations of CCNF gene is rare in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia from Mainland China

Objective: Mutations of the cyclin F (CCNF) gene were recently identified to be associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in Western and Japanese populations. The rare protein-altering variants frequency is 0.6 to 3.3% in ALS and FTD from these diverse geographic populations while no systematic analysis of CCNF variants were conducted in the Chinese population.Methods: We screened all exons of CCNF in a cohort of 269 cases (including 181 ALS and 88 FTD) from Mainland China using Sanger sequencing.Results: A rare heterozygous variant (c.481G>A, p.G161R) was detected in a sporadic ALS case with a frequency of 0.6%, while no mutation was identified in patients with FTD. The same variant was also found in a sporadic ALS patient from America.Conclusions: Our result indicates that the mutation of CCNF is rare in patients with ALS and FTD from Mainland China.