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    Maillard, Pierre‐Yves; Baer, Sarah; Schaefer, Élise; Desnous, Béatrice; Villeneuve, Nathalie; Lépine, Anne; Fabre, Alexandre; Lacoste, Caroline; El Chehadeh, Salima; Piton, Amélie; Porter, Louise Frances; Perriard, Caroline; Wardé, Marie‐Thérèse Abi; Spitz, Marie‐Aude; Laugel, Vincent; Lesca, Gaëtan; Putoux, Audrey; Ville, Dorothée; Mignot, Cyril; Héron, Delphine; Nabbout, Rima; Barcia, Giulia; Rio, Marlène; Roubertie, Agathe; Meyer, Pierre; Paquis‐Flucklinger, Véronique; Patat, Olivier; Lefranc, Jérémie; Gerard, Marion; Bellescize, Julietta; Villard, Laurent; Saint Martin, Anne; Milh, Mathieu

    Epilepsia, October 2022, Volume: 63, Issue: 10
    Journal Article

    Objective γ‐Aminobutyric acid (GABA)A‐receptor subunit variants have recently been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and/or epilepsy. The phenotype linked with each gene is becoming better known. Because of the common molecular structure and physiological role of these phenotypes, it seemed interesting to describe a putative phenotype associated with GABAA‐receptor–related disorders as a whole and seek possible genotype–phenotype correlations. Methods We collected clinical, electrophysiological, therapeutic, and molecular data from patients with GABAA‐receptor subunit variants (GABRA1, GABRB2, GABRB3, and GABRG2) through a national French collaboration using the EPIGENE network and compared these data to the one already described in the literature. Results We gathered the reported patients in three epileptic phenotypes: 15 patients with fever‐related epilepsy (40%), 11 with early developmental epileptic encephalopathy (30%), 10 with generalized epilepsy spectrum (27%), and 1 patient without seizures (3%). We did not find a specific phenotype for any gene, but we showed that the location of variants on the transmembrane (TM) segment was associated with a more severe phenotype, irrespective of the GABAA‐receptor subunit gene, whereas N‐terminal variants seemed to be related to milder phenotypes. Significance GABAA‐receptor subunit variants are associated with highly variable phenotypes despite their molecular and physiological proximity. None of the genes described here was associated with a specific phenotype. On the other hand, it appears that the location of the variant on the protein may be a marker of severity. Variant location may have important weight in the development of targeted therapeutics.