Adult-onset Gitelman syndrome with calpainopathy is a rare clinical condition in patients with diabetes mellitus. We present the case of a 52-year-old male diabetic patient who presented with muscle weakness and fatigue. On evaluation, he had reduced power in the thigh and pelvic girdle muscles. Laboratory tests revealed hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, metabolic alkalosis, kaliuresis, and hypocalciuria, which led to the diagnosis of Gitelman syndrome. Electromyography revealed a myopathic pattern with polyphasic motor unit action potentials of a short duration. Genetic analysis revealed a heterozygous mutation in CAPN3, suggestive of autosomal dominant calpainopathy or limb girdle muscular dystrophy. He was administered intravenous potassium and magnesium supplements, followed by oral potassium chloride, magnesium oxide, and potassium-sparing diuretics. The patient had improved muscle strength on follow-up, with resolution of the electrolyte abnormalities. This case report highlights this rare clinical entity, its variable clinical manifestations, and the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in electrolyte abnormalities.

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy Type 2A/R1 or calpain-3 deficiency is the most common autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. However, in recent years, autosomal dominant cases and families with calpain-3 deficiency have been reported, and there is an emerging interest in looking for single variants in the calpain-3 gene in mildly to moderately affected patients with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy without biallelic gene variants in CAPN3. Here, we report four cases with creatine kinase levels above 1500 U/L, mild-to-moderate proximal weakness, waddling gait, and scapular winging. Two patients, a son and his father, are heterozygous for the CAPN3 variant c.304C>T; p.(Pro102Ser), which has previously been reported in patients with compound heterozygous variants in CAPN3. The third and fourth patients were heterozygous for c.1371C>G; p.(Asn457Lys) and c.1490C>T; p.Ala497_Glu508del, respectively, neither of which has been reported before. All four patients had a near-complete loss of calpain-3 as determined by western blotting. While inherited autosomal dominant calpainopathy has now been firmly established, additional single cases of dominant calpainopathy are likely to emerge; some will be associated with clinical findings from parents or siblings, while others will arise from spontaneous mutations, but nevertheless with similar clinical findings of mild-to-moderate proximal weakness, increased level of creatine kinase, and near-complete loss of calpain-3 protein in affected individuals. This report expands the known number of variants causing dominant calpainopathy from 8 to 11 that appears to exclusively reside in two out of four domains that make up calpain-3. This information could aid in determining whether a CAPN3 variant of unknown significance is pathological.

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophies are a group of extremely heterogenous neuromuscular disorders that manifest with gradual and progressive weakness of both proximal and distal muscles. Autosomal dominant limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMDD4) or calpainopathy is a very rare form of myopathy characterized by weakness and atrophy of both proximal and distal muscles with a variable age of onset. LGMDD4 is caused by germline heterozygous mutations of the calpain 3 (CAPN3) gene. Patients with LGMDD4 often show extreme phenotypic heterogeneity; however, most patients present with gait difficulties, increased levels of serum creatine kinase, myalgia and back pain. In the present study, a 16-year-old male patient, clinically diagnosed with LGMDD4, was investigated. The proband had been suffering from weakness and atrophy of both of their proximal and distal muscles, and had difficulty walking and standing independently. The serum creatine kinase levels (4,754 IU/l; normal, 35-232 IU/l) of the patient were markedly elevated. The younger sister and mother of the proband were also clinically diagnosed with LGMDD4, while the father was phenotypically normal. Whole exome sequencing identified a heterozygous novel splice-site (c.2440-1G>A) mutation in intron 23 of the CAPN3 gene in the proband. Sanger sequencing confirmed that this mutation was also present in both the younger sister and mother of the proband, but the father was not a carrier of this mutation. This splice-site (c.2440-1G>A) mutation causes aberrant splicing of CAPN3 mRNA, leading to the skipping of the last exon (exon 24) of CAPN3 mRNA and resulting in the removal of eight amino acids from the C-terminal of domain IV of the CAPN3 protein. Hence, this splice site mutation causes the formation of a truncated CAPN3 protein (p.Trp814*) of 813 amino acids instead of the wild-type CAPN3 protein that consists of 821 amino acids. This mutation causes partial loss of domain IV (PEF domain) in the CAPN3 protein, which is involved in calcium binding and homodimerization; therefore, this is a loss-of-function mutation. Relative expression of the mutated CAPN3 mRNA was reduced in comparison with the wild-type CAPN3 mRNA in the proband, and their younger sister and mother. This mutation was also not present in 100 normal healthy control individuals of the same ethnicity. The present study reported the first case of CAPN3 gene-associated LGMDD4 in the Chinese population.

We report a genotype-phenotype analysis of a family in which a titinopathy is transmitted in an autosomal dominant pattern. In this family, following neurological history and examination, electromyogram, and muscle biopsy, the diagnosis of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy with contractures was made in an affected mother and son. Genetic testing employing the whole exome was performed and revealed two variants in the TTN gene, c.712G>C, p. Glu238Gln and c.1397A>C, p.Gln466Arg, which segregated with the disease in the affected mother-son duo but not in an unaffected sibling. Although protein modeling suggests that the c.712G>C, p. Glu238Gln polymorphism is damaging, it has been reported in the Genome Aggregation Database which includes exome and genome sequence data of unrelated individuals sequenced as part of various disease-specific and population genetic studies. In contrast, the c.1397A>C, p.Gln466Arg variant is novel and has not been reported in any public genetic databases or our internal laboratory database. Protein modeling analysis indicates that p.Gln466Arg is damaging and we hypothesize that it is the disease-producing mutation resulting in muscular dystrophy. Our research report expands the spectrum of mutations causing titinopathy.

Mutations of the caveolin 3 gene cause autosomal dominant limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD)1C. In mice, overexpression of mutant caveolin 3 leads to loss of caveolin 3 and results in myofiber hypotrophy in association with activation of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) at the sarcolemma. Here, we show that caveolin 3 directly bound to nNOS and suppressed its phosphorylation-dependent activation at a specific residue, Ser1412 in the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) module near the C-terminus of the reduction domain, in vitro. Constitutively active nNOS enhanced myoblast fusion, but not myogenesis, in vitro. Phosphorylation-dependent activation of nNOS occurred in muscles from caveolin 3-mutant mice and LGMD1C patients. Mating with nNOS-mutant mice exacerbated myofiber hypotrophy in the caveolin 3-mutant mice. In nNOS-mutant mice, regenerating myofibers after cardiotoxin injury became hypotrophic with reduced myoblast fusion. Administration of NO donor increased myofiber size and the number of myonuclei in the caveolin 3-mutant mice. Exercise also increased myofiber size accompanied by phosphorylation-dependent activation of nNOS in wild-type and caveolin 3-mutant mice. These data indicate that caveolin 3 inhibits phosphorylation-dependent activation of nNOS, which leads to myofiber hypertrophy via enhancing myoblast fusion. Hypertrophic signaling by nNOS phosphorylation could act in a compensatory manner in caveolin 3-deficient muscles.