Newborn Screening for Guanidinoacetate Methyltransferase (GAMT) deficiency Marzia Pasquali, PhD, FACMG Professor of Pathology, University of Utah School of Medicine Medical Director, Biochemical Genetics and Newborn Screening, ARUP Laboratories Atlanta, 6 February 2015
GAMT Deficiency Cause: recessive deficiency of guanidinoacetate methyltransferase impairs brain creatine synthesis. Accumulation of guanidinoacetate is toxic for the brain. Incidence: 1:120,000 (Utah) Presentation: Developmental delays, hypotonia, seizures, autistic-like behavior. Diagnosis: Lack of creatine peak in MR spectroscopy, plasma and urine creatine panel: increased plasma guanidinoacetate, decreased creatine. Therapy: Creatine (300 to 1,000 mg/kg/day) initiated preferably early in life in AGAT and GAMT deficiency. GAA levels can be reduced by ornithine supplementation (400-800 mg/kg/day) and Benzoate (50-250 mg/kg/day) to reduce glycine levels and GAA synthesis. Outcome: Good if therapy is initiated before brain damage, newborn screening in development
Arginine Glycine Ornithine Guanidino Acetate Methyl Transferase GAMT L-Arginine: Glycine Amidino Transferase AGAT Guanidinoacetate S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine S-Adenosyl-L-Homocysteine Plasma Membrane H 2 N C N COO - + NH 2 Creatine CH 3 Creatine Creatine Synthesis CT1 Creatine Transporter (SLC6A8 gene) Creatinine Longo N, Ardon O, Vanzo R, Schwartz E, Pasquali M. 2011. Disorders of creatine transport and metabolism. Am J Med Genet Part C Semin Med Genet 157:72 78.
GAMT deficiency treatment Treatment Goal: Restore creatine, reduce guanidinoacetate (GAA) GAA Choline Creatine N-Acetyl aspartate GAA Choline Creatine N-Acetyl aspartate BRAIN MR SPECTROSCOPY Viau KS, Ernst SL, Pasquali M, Botto LD, Hedlund G, Longo N. Evidence-based treatment of guanidinoacetate methyltransferase (GAMT) deficiency. Mol Genet Metab. 2013 Nov;110(3):255-62. doi: 0.1016/j.ymgme.2013.08.020. Epub 2013 Sep 8. PMID: 24071436
GAMT deficiency treatment Creatine (300 to 1000 mg/kg/day) initiated preferably early in life In GAMT deficiency, GAA levels can be reduced by ornithine supplementation (400-800 mg/kg/day) and Benzoate (50-250 mg/kg/day) to reduce glycine levels and GAA synthesis. Arginine Ornithine Glycine L-Arginine: Glycine Amidino Transferase AGAT Guanidinoacetate
Outcome Patients with GAMT deficiency respond to treatment with improvement of delays and seizures. Mental retardation is NOT reversed. Treatment at birth prevents mental retardation in children identified early because of family history (or newborn screening). Viau KS, Ernst SL, Pasquali M, Botto LD, Hedlund G, Longo N. Evidence-based treatment of guanidinoacetate methyltransferase (GAMT) deficiency. Mol Genet Metab. 2013 Nov;110(3):255-62. doi: 10.1016/j.ymgme.2013.08.020. Epub 2013 Sep 8. PMID: 24071436
Feasibility of GAMT newborn screening 10,000 de-identified DBS were analyzed using our routine NBS method, with d 3 -creatine and d 2 -GAA added in the Internal Standards mixture. Creatine and GAA were measured using SRM. Abnormal results (elevated GAA, > 99.5%) were followed up with 2 nd tier test using LC-MS/MS. Aims: evaluate feasibility of screening for creatine deficiency syndromes (especially GAMT deficiency) evaluate false positive rate evaluate effectiveness of second tier testing
Newborn Screening for GAMT Deficiency Screening Normal Elevated GAA Abnormal Second tier Testing by UPLC-MS/MS Normal Abnormal Confirmatory tests
Summary of data 9,288 viable DBS < 7 days: n=4,691 5.4% collected at <1 day 88.7 % collected at 1-2 days 5.9 % collected at > 3 days > 7 days: n=4,597 47.6 % collected at 8-14 days 44.8 % collected at 15-21 days 7.6 % collected at > 21 days 7 blood spots from 3 patients with GAMT deficiency collected at 1 21 days
Creatine and Guanidino acetate in dried blood spots Guanidinoacetate µmol/l Creatine µmol/l 30 20 10 3 2 1 0 500 400 300 200 100 Pasquali M. et al. (2014) J Inherit Metab Dis 37:231-236 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 Age, days
The ratio GAA/Creatine increases the specificity GAA/Creatine GAA/Creatine 0.7 0.4 0.1 0.015 0.000 1 0.1 0.01 0.001 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 Age, days Pasquali M. et al. (2014) J Inherit Metab Dis 37:231-236 0.1 1 10 100 Guanidinoacetate, µmol/l
Second tier test for GAA and creatine Creatine and GAA were extracted from DBS (4.7 mm punches) using methanol containing deuterated internal standards. The extract was dried, derivatized using 3N HCl in butanol, dried, and reconstituted with water/acetonitrile. The analysis was performed using a XEVO-TQ UPLC-MS/MS system with a BEH C18 column for the chromatographic separation. NORMAL Creatine GAA (2.55 min) (2.70 min) Creatinine Leucine
Second tier testing for GAA Positive screen results (> 2.44 µmol/l) = 60 Total number of 2 nd tier tests = 60 Positives after 2 nd tier test = 7 samples (three patients with GAMT deficiency, 1 st and 2 nd screens) No false positives were identified after the second tier test.
GAA (first screen results) Guanidinoacetate (GAA) levels Average (µmol/l) NP= Normal Population Std Dev 99% (µmol/l) NP (NBS) 1.25 0.41 2.20 NP (2 nd tier test) 1.42 0.54 3.08 GAMT Deficiency 32.8 0.54 N/A True positives identified on first and second screening (n=3) False positive rate was 0% with second tier testing (n=10,000)
Summary NBS for GAMT deficiency is feasible False positive rate can be reduced to virtually 0% with a second tier test Utah will start screening for GAMT deficiency probably by the Summer.
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