Intragenic MBD5 familial deletion variant does not negatively impact MBD5 mRNA expression

Abstract

2q23.1 deletion syndrome is characterized by intellectual disability, speech impairment, seizures, disturbed sleep pattern, behavioral problems, and hypotonia. Core features of this syndrome are due to haploinsufficiency of MBD5. Deletions that include coding and noncoding exons show reduced MBD5 mRNA expression. We report a patient with a neurological and behavioral phenotype similar to 2q23.1 deletion syndrome with an inherited intronic deletion in the 5-prime untranslated region of MBD5. Our data show that this patient has normal MBD5 mRNA expression; therefore, this deletion is likely not causative for 2q23.1 deletion syndrome. Overall, it is important to validate intronic deletions for pathogenicity.