Variations in the coding and regulatory sequences of the angiogenin (ANG) gene are not associated to ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in the Italian population

Potentially causative missense variations in the ANG gene and a positive association with the synonymous rs11701-G substitution was detected mainly in Irish and Scottish ALS patients. We screened 262 Italian SOD1 negative ALS patients (250 sporadic) and 415 matched controls for sequence variations in the coding, 3'/5' UTR and 5' flanking (642 bp) regions of the ANG gene. We identified 53 sequence variations of which 46 new, 20 with a minor allele frequency (MAF) >or=0.01 and only three localised in the coding sequence, namely the missense I46V, identified in one patient and two controls, and the synonymous G86G and T97T corresponding to rs11701 and rs2228653. None of the detected SNPs or of their haplotypic combinations was significantly associated with ALS susceptibility or clinical features. In conclusion, we did not detect the association with rs11701-G or with any other newly detected variation in the ANG regulatory region. Furthermore we did not identify potentially causal mutations in the coding region.