Prevalence of GNE myopathy probably underestimated

GNE myopathy (GNEM) remains a particularly rare neuromuscular disease (with an estimated 1 to 9 cases per 1 million), probably because it remains poorly understood and poorly diagnosed:

  • in addition to the international patient register, researchers belonging to the international consortium dedicated to GNEM have used information contained in the literature and in public databases of genetic variants,
  • these variants of the GNE gene may or may not be clearly pathogenic,
  • algorithms have made it possible to reclassify some of them,
  • all of which has resulted in much higher prevalence figures: between 19 and 95 cases per 1 million.

These figures represent only a prediction, but suggest that this myopathy is much more common than previously thought.

 

Estimating the Prevalence of GNE Myopathy Using Population Genetic Databases. Derksen A, Thompson R, Shaikh M, et al. Hum Mutat. 2024 Aug