Novel HCFC1 variants identified in patients with ASD/ADHD and previously unreported structural brain malformations reveal the potential for phenotypic expansion

Abstract

Pathogenic variants in the HCFC1 gene, which encodes a transcriptional cofactor, cause cblX syndrome, intellectual disability, or partial focal epilepsy. HCFC1 encodes a multi-domain precursor protein that undergoes proteolytic cleavage to produce N- and C-terminal fragments that interact non-covalently. Pathogenic variants in the N-terminal kelch domain cause cblX syndrome with high penetrance and severity. However, pathogenic variants in the proteolytic cleavage domain cause focal epilepsy, and pathogenic variants in the C-terminal domain (i.e. acidic) are associated with non-syndromic intellectual disability. Previous studies have loosely associated some variants with neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the gene has not been associated with other neuropsychiatric disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this report, we describe the genotype-phenotype observations for 2 novel HCFC1 variants including one non-coding variant. The presence of ASD/ADHD in this case series indicates that neuropsychiatric features merit routine assessment when interpreting HCFC1 variants of unknown significance, pending larger studies and functional data.