CAT Interruption as a Protective Factor in Chinese Patients with Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1.

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is the third most common type of spinocerebellar ataxias in China. CAT interruptions in the pathogenic alleles of SCA1 patients had only been reported by limited documents and there was a lack of data based on the Chinese population. In this study, we detected CAT interrupted pathogenic alleles in SCA1 patients from 4 out of 79 (5.1%) Chinese families. Their total CAG repeats were larger (median 58 vs. 47, p < 0.001) but ages at onset were later (median 46 vs. 38, p = 0.020). The longest uninterrupted CAG repeats could explain 65.4% of the AAO variance, making an increase of 28.0% compared to the total CAG repeats. The interruption pattern was greatly different between Chinese cohort and Caucasian cohort, indicating the effect of race.