Treatment with mefolinate (5-methyltetrahydrofolate), but not folic acid or folinic acid, leads to measurable 5-methyltetrahydrofolate in cerebrospinal fluid in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase deficiency

Abstract

S-adenosyl methionine, which is formed from methionine, is an essential methyl donor within the central nervous system. Methionine is formed by the enzyme methionine synthase for which 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF) and homocysteine are substrates. Patients with severe methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) deficiency cannot make 5-MTHF and have extremely low levels in the CSF. As a consequence, methylation reactions in the CNS are compromised, and this is likely to play an important role in the neurological abnormalities that occur in MTHFR deficiency. Although treatment with oral betaine can remethylate homocysteine to methionine in the liver, betaine crosses the blood-brain barrier poorly, and CSF levels of methionine remain low. We report three patients with severe MTHFR deficiency (enzyme activity ≤1% of controls) who had undetectable levels of CSF 5-MTHF at diagnosis and while on treatment with either folic acid or calcium folinate. Only treatment with oral 5-MTHF given as calcium mefolinate at doses of 15–60 mg/kg/day resulted in an increase in CSF 5-MTHF.