CLRN1

Usher Syndrome Type III

Clinical Characteristics
Ocular Features: 

Retinitis pigmentosa is a cardinal feature with onset of severe symptoms of nightblindness and tunnel vision by the second decade of life.  The ERG shows depressed responses.  Central vision may also be lost in young adults.  Hypermetropic astigmatism has been reported as the most typical refractive error for type III in the presence of nightblindness and hearing loss, at least in Finnish patients.

Systemic Features: 

Hearing loss is progressive but later in onset than in type I and type II.  Infants are usually born with normal hearing and often experience some loss of hearing by the end of the first decade of life.  Speech can develop normally because of the late onset of the hearing deficit.  Hearing loss is progressive early with older patients having a profound and eventually more stable hearing deficit.  The amount of vestibular dysfunction is variable but usually is severe enough to cause significant unsteadiness.  The mental changes associated with type I are absent.

Genetics

Usher syndrome is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous condition.   Type IIIA is caused by a mutation in the CLRN1 gene (3q21-q25).  It is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern.  Type IIIB (614505) is the result of homozygous mutations in HARS (5q31.3).

There is also a disorder resembling Usher that results from homozygous mutations in ABHD12 (20p11.21) that also causes PHARC (612674) (polyneuropathy, hearing loss, ataxia, retinitis pigmentosa, and early onset cataract).

This is the least common type of Usher syndrome.  Three additional types of Usher syndrome are recognized:  type I (276900) results from mutations in at least 7 different genes, type II (276901) from mutations in 4 genes, and Type IV resulting from mutations in the ARSG gene.

Pedigree: 
Autosomal recessive
Treatment
Treatment Options: 

Hearing aids might be helpful early but cochlear implants may be needed in older patients with severe deafness.  Low vision aids are often helpful.

References
Article Title: 

Targeted next-generation sequencing identifies a homozygous nonsense mutation in ABHD12, the gene underlying PHARC, in a family clinically diagnosed with Usher syndrome type 3

Eisenberger T, Slim R, Mansour A, Nauck M, N?ornberg G, N?ornberg P, Decker C, Dafinger C, Ebermann I, Bergmann C, Bolz HJ. Targeted next-generation sequencing identifies a homozygous nonsense mutation in ABHD12, the gene underlying PHARC, in a family clinically diagnosed with Usher syndrome type 3. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2012 Sep 2;7(1):59. [Epub ahead of print]

PubMed ID: 
22938382
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