Gaucher Disease Diagnosis Using Lyso‐Gb1 on Dry Blood Spot Samples: Time to Change the Paradigm?

Abstract

For years, the gold standard for diagnosing Gaucher disease (GD) has been detecting reduced β‐glucocerebrosidase (GCase) activity in peripheral blood cells combined with GBA1 mutation analysis. The use of dried blood spot (DBS) specimens offers many advantages, including easy collection, the need for a small amount of blood, and simpler transportation. However, DBS has limitations for measuring GCase activity. In this paper, we recount our cross‐sectional study and publish seven years of experience using DBS samples and levels of the deacylated form of glucocerebroside, glucosylsphingosine (lyso‐Gb1), for GD diagnosis. Of 444 screened subjects, 99 (22.3%) were diagnosed with GD at a median (range) age of 21 (1–78) years. Lyso‐Gb levels for genetically confirmed GD patients vs. subjects negative to GD diagnosis were 252 (9–1340) ng/mL and 5.4 (1.5– 16) ng/mL, respectively. Patients diagnosed with GD1 and mild GBA1 variants had lower median (range) lyso‐Gb1, 194 (9–1050), compared to GD1 and severe GBA1 variants, 447 (38–1340) ng/mL, and neuronopathic GD, 325 (116–1270) ng/mL (p = 0.001). Subjects with heterozygous GBA1 variants (carrier) had higher lyso‐Gb1 levels, 5.8 (2.5–15.3) ng/mL, compared to wild‐type GBA1, 4.9 (1.5– 16), ng/mL (p = 0.001). Lyso‐Gb1 levels, median (range), were 5 (2.7–10.7) in heterozygous GBA1 carriers with Parkinson’s disease (PD), similar to lyso‐Gb1 levels in subjects without PD. We call for a paradigm change for the diagnosis of GD based on lyso‐Gb1 measurements and confirmatory GBA1 mutation analyses in DBS. Lyso‐Gb1 levels could not be used to differentiate between heterozygous GBA1 carriers and wild type.