Abstract
Mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy (MNGIE) is a rare multisystem
autosomal recessive disorder. The disease is clinically heterogeneous with gastrointestinal
symptoms of intestinal dysmotility and cachexia as well as neurological symptoms of
ophthalmoplegia, neuropathy, sensorineural hearing impairment, and diffuse leukoencephalopathy
being most prominent. MNGIE is caused by mutations in TYMP, a gene that encodes thymidine phosphorylase (TP)—a cytosolic enzyme. Mutations in
TYMP lead to very low TP catalytic activity, resulting in dramatically increased thymidine
and deoxyuridine in plasma. We describe the clinical, biochemical, and neuroimaging
findings of three boys with MNGIE from a Pakistani family with a novel homozygous
mutation, c.798_801dupCGCG p. (Ala268Argfs*?), in exon 7 of TYMP.
Keywords
mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy - Pakistani patients - novel
mutation - magnetic resonance imaging of brain -
TYMP