Background: Renal hypouricemia (RHUC) is a heterogeneous inherited disorder characterized by impaired tubular uric acid (UA) transport with severe complications, such as acute kidney injury. Type 1 is caused by a mutation in the SLC22A12 gene (URAT1) and type 2 in the SLC2A9 gene (GLUT9). In this article, the authors present a coexpression functional characterization of variants responsible for RHUC type 1 in a Czech family with polycystic kidney disease (PKD).
Methods: The serum UA concentration in the proband was 1.1 mg/dL and was expressed as an increase in the fractional excretion of UA (43%). The URAT1 allelic variants were prepared and their urate uptake and subcellular localization were studied by Xenopus oocytes expression system. Linkage analysis using a panel of 4 CA-repeat flanking markers for chromosome 16 and a panel of 3 CA-repeat flanking markers for chromosome 4 was performed, which carry the PKD1 and PKD2 genes, respectively.
Results: Coexpression results showed that p.G366R and p.R477H suppressed urate transport by wild types. Colocalization studies showed an accumulation of URAT1 in the endoplasmic reticulum of the p.G366R variant and mainly retention of wild-type protein by variants p.G366R and p.R477H.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that not only loss-of-function mutation of URAT1 but also the dominant-negative effect cause RHUC through loss of UA absorption, partly due to protein misfolding caused by accumulation of URAT1 protein in the endoplasmic reticulum.