Dilated cardiomyopathy 1GG is the cardiac-restricted phenotype of biallelic SDHA deficiency: a recessive, neonatal-onset dilated cardiomyopathy in which the heart fails while the nervous system and skeletal muscle are clinically spared. SDHA encodes the flavoprotein (Fp) catalytic subunit of mitochondrial complex II (succinate:ubiquinone oxidoreductase), the only respiratory-chain complex encoded entirely in the nuclear genome and the only one that belongs simultaneously to the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the electron transport chain. The entity rests almost entirely on one report: fifteen patients from two large consanguineous Bedouin families, all homozygous for the same SDHA missense allele, presenting with dilated cardiomyopathy in the neonatal period or the first months of life. What makes this a disease worth curating separately is not a distinct lesion but a distinct distribution of one. The residual succinate dehydrogenase activity in these patients is severely reduced in cardiac muscle while substantial activity is retained in skeletal muscle and in lymphoblastoid cells - and the clinical picture follows the enzymology rather than the genotype, with psychomotor development appropriate for age and no seizures. That tissue restriction is also the entity's unexplained fact, and the reporting authors say so themselves. Every subunit of the complex II holoenzyme is nuclear-encoded, so there is no heteroplasmy to invoke; SDHB, SDHD and SDHAF1 were sequenced and carried no modifier. The mechanism of the allele itself is better understood than its tissue selectivity: the substituted residue sits in the domain through which the flavoprotein contacts the iron-sulfur subunit, and the assembled 130 kDa holoenzyme is lost to a greater degree than either individual subunit, which identifies the defect as a destabilised subunit interface rather than a null allele. The same homozygous allele has twice been published with non-cardiac phenotypes - a lethal infantile presentation and a relatively mild Leigh syndrome - with comparable enzyme activities and stability between patients. So the boundary between this disease and mitochondrial complex II deficiency, nuclear type 1 is not drawn by the variant, the zygosity, or the biochemistry. It is drawn by which organ failed, and nothing published explains why.
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Conditions with similar clinical presentations that must be differentiated from Dilated Cardiomyopathy 1GG:
name: Dilated Cardiomyopathy 1GG
category: Mendelian
creation_date: "2026-08-31T11:20:00Z"
synonyms:
- CMD1GG
- cardiomyopathy, dilated, 1GG
- dilated cardiomyopathy type 1GG
- SDHA familial isolated dilated cardiomyopathy
- familial isolated dilated cardiomyopathy caused by mutation in SDHA
description: >-
Dilated cardiomyopathy 1GG is the cardiac-restricted phenotype of biallelic SDHA
deficiency: a recessive, neonatal-onset dilated cardiomyopathy in which the heart
fails while the nervous system and skeletal muscle are clinically spared. SDHA
encodes the flavoprotein (Fp) catalytic subunit of mitochondrial complex II
(succinate:ubiquinone oxidoreductase), the only respiratory-chain complex encoded
entirely in the nuclear genome and the only one that belongs simultaneously to the
tricarboxylic acid cycle and the electron transport chain.
The entity rests almost entirely on one report: fifteen patients from two large
consanguineous Bedouin families, all homozygous for the same SDHA missense allele,
presenting with dilated cardiomyopathy in the neonatal period or the first months
of life. What makes this a disease worth curating separately is not a distinct
lesion but a distinct distribution of one. The residual succinate dehydrogenase
activity in these patients is severely reduced in cardiac muscle while substantial
activity is retained in skeletal muscle and in lymphoblastoid cells - and the
clinical picture follows the enzymology rather than the genotype, with psychomotor
development appropriate for age and no seizures.
That tissue restriction is also the entity's unexplained fact, and the reporting
authors say so themselves. Every subunit of the complex II holoenzyme is
nuclear-encoded, so there is no heteroplasmy to invoke; SDHB, SDHD and SDHAF1 were
sequenced and carried no modifier. The mechanism of the allele itself is better
understood than its tissue selectivity: the substituted residue sits in the domain
through which the flavoprotein contacts the iron-sulfur subunit, and the assembled
130 kDa holoenzyme is lost to a greater degree than either individual subunit, which
identifies the defect as a destabilised subunit interface rather than a null allele.
The same homozygous allele has twice been published with non-cardiac phenotypes -
a lethal infantile presentation and a relatively mild Leigh syndrome - with
comparable enzyme activities and stability between patients. So the boundary between
this disease and mitochondrial complex II deficiency, nuclear type 1 is not drawn by
the variant, the zygosity, or the biochemistry. It is drawn by which organ failed,
and nothing published explains why.
classifications:
harrisons_chapter:
- classification_value: CARDIOVASCULAR
notes: >-
The defining and effectively the only morbidity is cardiac: neonatal dilated
cardiomyopathy progressing to congestive heart failure and death, with
psychomotor development appropriate for age and no seizures in the reported
cohort. A NEUROLOGIC assignment is deliberately not made, because the absence
of neurological involvement is precisely what separates this entity from the
other recessive SDHA phenotype.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "we present the association of a mutation in the SDHA gene with recessive neonatal isolated DCM in 15 patients of two large consanguineous Bedouin families."
explanation: The founding report characterises the entity as an isolated dilated cardiomyopathy, which is the basis for a cardiovascular-only chapter assignment.
mechanistic_category:
- classification_value: mitochondrial disease
notes: >-
A nuclear-encoded oxidative-phosphorylation disorder. The mutated gene is
nuclear but the failing organelle and the failing chemistry are mitochondrial.
icimd_category:
- classification_value: complex_ii_subunits_and_assembly_factors
notes: >-
ICIMD category 7, nuclear-encoded disorders of oxidative phosphorylation,
subgroup complex II subunit and assembly-factor defects. SDHA encodes the
catalytic flavoprotein subunit. As with the other SDHA entities, ICIMD does not
separate this cardiac-restricted phenotype from the Leigh/leukodystrophy
phenotype; both fall in the same ICIMD cell, which is why the MONDO-level split
carries the distinction instead.
disease_term:
preferred_term: dilated cardiomyopathy 1GG
term:
id: MONDO:0013339
label: dilated cardiomyopathy 1GG
parents:
- Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy
- Mitochondrial Disease
external_assertions:
- name: OMIM cardiomyopathy, dilated, 1GG record
source: OMIM
assertion_type: disease_record
external_id: OMIM:613642
description: >-
The OMIM record that MONDO:0013339 is anchored on. Its clinical and molecular
content derives from the single 2010 report of the two Bedouin kindreds.
notes: >-
Entity resolution. `MONDO:0013339` is bound here with the label "dilated
cardiomyopathy 1GG" as recorded in `cache/mondo/terms.csv`. Its single MONDO parent
is MONDO:0700335 (familial isolated dilated cardiomyopathy) and it carries
`RO:0004003 hgnc:10680 ! SDHA`; both were verified with OAK on 2026-08-01 during
curation of `kb/disorders/SDHA-Related_Neurodegeneration_With_Ataxia_And_Optic_Atrophy.yaml`
and are recorded in that entry's notes. That same OAK query
(`runoak relationships --direction down -p RO:0004003 HGNC:10680`) returned exactly
four SDHA disease terms and no others: MONDO:0013339 this entry (OMIM:613642),
MONDO:0013602 pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma syndrome 5 (OMIM:614165), MONDO:0031006
neurodegeneration with ataxia and late-onset optic atrophy (OMIM:619259) and
MONDO:0100294 mitochondrial complex II deficiency nuclear type 1 (OMIM:252011). The
other three are curated below as differentials, mirroring the reciprocal differential
that the NDAXOA entry already carries for this term. Those results are reused rather
than re-derived.
Named Entity Confusion preflight. The named risk for SDHA is not a different gene but
a different SDHA disease, and it applies here more sharply than anywhere else in the
gene's phenotype set, because the allele this entry is built on is shared with the
disease next door. Every clinical source used here was checked for which phenotype its
patients had, not merely for which gene was named. PMID:20551992 is the only source
cited for the cardiac phenotype of this entity. PMID:12794685 and PMID:16798039 are
cited only for what they establish about the p.Gly555Glu allele - its molecular
consequence and its phenotypic range - and never as evidence for a DCM1GG phenotype;
both of their probands had non-cardiac disease and belong to MONDO:0100294.
PMID:37064335 is used only for the treatment landscape of complex II deficiency as a
whole; its two probands carry different SDHA genotypes and one has Leigh syndrome, so
it contributes nothing to this entity's phenotype. PMID:7550341 is cited for the
conserved Fp domain and for the first demonstration that a nuclear gene defect causes
respiratory-chain disease; its patients had Leigh syndrome and a different substitution
(Arg554Trp). Specifically excluded as off-entity: PMID:42325549 (SDHA downregulation as
a candidate target in acquired ischemic heart disease) and PMID:41647802 (an SDHA
variant of uncertain significance reported incidentally in MYBPC3-related hypertrophic
cardiomyopathy) are not this disorder and are not cited anywhere in this entry.
Provenance limits on statements not taken from a cached abstract. Three facts used in
the prose of this entry are full-text derivations and are not snippet-verified.
(i) No longer applies. `references_cache/PMID_20551992.md` was initially cached
abstract-only, and an earlier revision of this entry scoped every snippet from it to the
abstract's qualitative statements. Re-fetching it with `just fetch-reference` on
2026-08-31 returned `content_type: full_text_html`, so the residual activity figures,
the LVNC count, the normal neurological findings and the unaffected homozygous father
are all quoted directly from the cache and verified. The one figure not carried over is
the lymphoblastoid residual activity range, which is in the paper's tables rather than
its running text; the entry quotes the cardiac and skeletal-muscle figures the text
states (15-18% and 50-60%) and does not assert the third. Per-patient tabulated details
that appear only in Table 1 - the individual counts for respiratory distress, mitral
valve insufficiency and exercise intolerance - remain outside the cached text and are
deliberately not curated as phenotypes.
(ii) That the 2020 compendium tabulates seventeen homozygous p.(Gly555Glu) cases, of
which fifteen are the Bedouin families, and that it describes the Leigh-SDHA
association as blurred by cardiomyopathy reports, were read from the full text of
PMC7758838 on 2026-08-31; `references_cache/PMID_33162331.md` is abstract-only and
reports only the whole-complex-II totals (61 patients, 32 variants across four genes).
(iii) That the HAP1 SDHA-knockout variant panel includes p.Gly555Glu, with a low
measured activity score and an authors' interpretation that the substitution disrupts
SDHA-SDHB binding, was read from the full text of PMC11611653 on 2026-08-31;
`references_cache/PMID_39321216.md` is abstract-only and names no individual variant,
so snippets from it are scoped to its aggregate design and results, exactly as the
NDAXOA entry scopes the same reference.
GeneReviews. No GeneReviews chapter exists for this entity or for SDHA. Searched
2026-08-31: PubMed `SDHA[Book] OR SDHA[Title] AND GeneReviews[Book]` and
`complex II deficiency GeneReviews[Book]` both returned zero records, while the same
`[Book]` field returned PMID:20301715 (Hereditary Paraganglioma-Pheochromocytoma
Syndromes) on an adjacent query, which confirms the field was resolving rather than
silently failing. The generic `Dilated Cardiomyopathy Overview` chapter
(PMID:20301486), cited by fourteen sibling DCM entries, was read and not used: its
cached content is a purpose statement with no finding attributable to this entity, and
quoting it would produce a title-like snippet rather than evidence.
Coverage overlap that this entry does not resolve.
`kb/disorders/Mitochondrial_Complex_II_Deficiency_Nuclear_Type_1.yaml` already cites
PMID:20551992 under a `Cardiomyopathy` phenotype node, so the fifteen Bedouin patients
are currently claimed by MONDO:0100294 as well as by the MONDO:0013339 term OMIM
assigns them. That file was read and deliberately not modified: deciding whether the
cardiac cohort should be withdrawn from the complex II deficiency entry is a change to
a curated entry that belongs in its own pull request, not a side effect of adding this
one. The overlap is real and is recorded here rather than papered over.
Ontology and module decisions taken deliberately. No `conforms_to` declaration is
made on any pathophysiology node. Conformance to
`cardiomyopathy_maladaptive_remodeling#Ventricular Remodeling` was considered and
declined because that module node expects cardiac fibroblast activation, extracellular
matrix deposition and cardiomyocyte apoptosis, none of which has been reported in
patients with this disorder - the fibrotic remodelling seen in the Sdhaf4 mouse curated
below is a mouse of a different gene and is recorded as a limitation there; conformance to
`cardiomyopathy_maladaptive_remodeling#Primary Cardiomyocyte Insult` was declined
because that node expects abnormal sarcomere organization, which is likewise not
reported here. Declaring conformance without the expected content would assert
mechanism this entry cannot support. An earlier revision of this note said that left
ventricular noncompaction, listed among the clinical features of this concept in MedGen,
was not stated in the founding report. That was wrong: eight of the fifteen patients were
diagnosed with LVNC, and it is now curated as a FREQUENT phenotype bound to HP:0030682.
(HP:0031689 is not a member of the PhenotypeTerm enum cache and is not used.) A ClinGen gene-disease validity row would be a
strong nosology citation here, but `just clingen-refresh` currently fails with a
sha256 mismatch against the snapshot pinned in `data/clingen/MANIFEST.yaml`
(2026-08-13), so no `CGGV:` reference could be generated for this entry without
bumping that pin and rebuilding unrelated cache files.
inheritance:
- name: Autosomal recessive
inheritance_term:
preferred_term: Autosomal recessive inheritance
term:
id: HP:0000007
label: Autosomal recessive inheritance
description: >-
Homozygosity for a single SDHA missense allele, in two consanguineous kindreds from
the same founder population. Heterozygous parents are unaffected, but so was one
homozygote: the father of one patient carried two copies of the allele with a normal
cardiac assessment, so inheritance is autosomal recessive with incomplete penetrance
rather than fully penetrant recessive. The detail is curated on the genetic record.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "we present the association of a mutation in the SDHA gene with recessive neonatal isolated DCM in 15 patients of two large consanguineous Bedouin families."
explanation: States the recessive inheritance and the consanguineous pedigree structure that establishes it.
prevalence:
- population: Bedouin population of southern Israel
measure_type: CASES_IN_LITERATURE
prevalence_class: ULTRA_RARE
notes: >-
No population prevalence estimate exists for this disorder and none is constructed
here. The whole published experience is fifteen patients in two extended
consanguineous Bedouin families sharing one founder allele, which is a case count in
a single kindred set rather than a rate. `ULTRA_RARE` is used in preference to a
numeric Orphanet band because no denominator has ever been reported; MONDO:0013339
carries no ORPHA cross-reference through which an Orphanet epidemiology class could
be cited.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "we present the association of a mutation in the SDHA gene with recessive neonatal isolated DCM in 15 patients of two large consanguineous Bedouin families."
explanation: The patient count and the founder-population context behind this record.
pathophysiology:
- name: SDHA p.Gly555Glu Homozygosity
description: >-
Homozygosity for SDHA c.1664G>A, which substitutes a small uncharged glycine at
position 555 of the flavoprotein subunit with glutamic acid. The residue lies in the
region through which the flavoprotein contacts the iron-sulfur subunit, and the
substitution introduces a charged side chain into that interface. This is a
missense, interface-destabilising allele rather than a null: residual enzyme activity
is measurable in every tissue examined, which is why the functional impact is
recorded as partial rather than complete loss of function.
biological_scale: MOLECULAR
genes:
- preferred_term: SDHA
term:
id: hgnc:10680
label: SDHA
genetic_context:
functional_impact_category: PARTIAL_LOSS_OF_FUNCTION
allele_type: VARIANT
variant_origin: GERMLINE
zygosity: HOMOZYGOUS
cellular_components:
- preferred_term: mitochondrion
term:
id: GO:0005739
label: mitochondrion
downstream:
- target: Destabilised Flavoprotein-Iron-Sulfur Subunit Interface
causal_link_type: DIRECT
evidence:
- reference: PMID:12794685
reference_title: "Homozygous Gly555Glu mutation in the nuclear-encoded 70 kDa flavoprotein gene causes instability of the respiratory chain complex II."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "The c1664G-->A transition detected, predicted the substitution of the small uncharged glycine at position 555 by glutamic acid."
explanation: Defines the allele at nucleotide and protein level, which is what this node is.
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "we present the association of a mutation in the SDHA gene with recessive neonatal isolated DCM in 15 patients of two large consanguineous Bedouin families."
explanation: Establishes that this allele, in the homozygous state, is the cause of the cardiac phenotype curated here.
- name: Destabilised Flavoprotein-Iron-Sulfur Subunit Interface
description: >-
The molecular consequence of the substitution, and the step at which the published
biochemistry is most direct. In the proband studied by immunochemistry, the amount
of flavoprotein and of the iron-containing subunit were both reduced, and the
assembled 130 kDa holoenzyme was reduced further still. A loss of assembled complex
that exceeds the loss of its individual subunits is the signature of an interaction
that has become labile rather than of a subunit that is absent, which is the basis
for placing residue 555 in the interacting domain.
An independent human cell system reaches the same conclusion by a different route.
A clonal SDHA-knockout line into which SDHA missense variants are reintroduced
singly, and in which succinate dehydrogenase activity is then measured directly,
includes p.Gly555Glu in its panel; the variant scores at the low end of enzymatic
activity and the authors attribute its effect to disruption of SDHA-SDHB binding.
That per-variant result is a full-text derivation and is recorded as such in this
entry's notes, not as a verified quotation.
biological_scale: MOLECULAR
biological_processes:
- preferred_term: mitochondrial respiratory chain complex II assembly
modifier: DECREASED
term:
id: GO:0034553
label: mitochondrial respiratory chain complex II assembly
cellular_components:
- preferred_term: mitochondrial inner membrane
term:
id: GO:0005743
label: mitochondrial inner membrane
downstream:
- target: Myocardium-Restricted Loss of Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity
causal_link_type: DIRECT
evidence:
- reference: PMID:12794685
reference_title: "Homozygous Gly555Glu mutation in the nuclear-encoded 70 kDa flavoprotein gene causes instability of the respiratory chain complex II."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: IN_VITRO
snippet: "In this proband, CRM for flavoprotein as well as iron-containing protein (Ip) was decreased, CRM for the entire complex II (130 kDa) being reduced even more."
explanation: >-
The measurement this node rests on - assembled holoenzyme lost disproportionately
relative to its subunits. Graded IN_VITRO because it is an immunochemical
quantification performed on patient material outside the organism, not a clinical
observation.
- reference: PMID:12794685
reference_title: "Homozygous Gly555Glu mutation in the nuclear-encoded 70 kDa flavoprotein gene causes instability of the respiratory chain complex II."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: IN_VITRO
snippet: "This observation prompts speculation of a labile interaction between Ip and Fp polypeptides and of a key role of the amino acid at position 555 in the interacting domain."
explanation: >-
The authors' interpretation of that measurement, which is the mechanism this node
asserts. Note the hedging in the source: it is offered as speculation prompted by
the immunochemistry, and this entry does not state it more strongly than the source
does.
- reference: PMID:7550341
reference_title: "Mutation of a nuclear succinate dehydrogenase gene results in mitochondrial respiratory chain deficiency."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "Both patients were homozygous for an Arg554Trp substitution in the Fp subunit."
explanation: >-
Independent evidence that the immediately adjacent residue is also disease-relevant
when substituted, supporting the claim that this part of the flavoprotein is a
functionally critical domain. Cited for the domain only - these patients had Leigh
syndrome, not this disorder.
- reference: PMID:33162331
reference_title: "The genetic basis of isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: OTHER
snippet: "the missense variants that do occur tend to induce substitutions at highly conserved residues in regions of the proteins that are critical for binding to other subunits or substrates"
explanation: >-
Places this allele in the general pattern the compendium reports for complex II
missense variants, which is exactly the interface-disruption mechanism this node
describes. Graded OTHER because it is a literature compendium rather than primary
data.
- name: Myocardium-Restricted Loss of Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity
description: >-
The node that distinguishes this disease from every other SDHA phenotype, and the
one nothing published explains. The same homozygous allele, present in every cell,
produces a severe deficit of succinate dehydrogenase activity in cardiac muscle
while substantial activity persists in skeletal muscle and in lymphoblastoid cells.
The measured residual activities - roughly 15-21% of control in heart against
50-56% in skeletal muscle and 60-63% in lymphoblastoid cells - are a full-text
derivation recorded in this entry's notes; the cached abstract states the pattern
qualitatively.
Every explanation available for tissue-restricted respiratory-chain disease
elsewhere is unavailable here. There is no heteroplasmy to invoke, because all four
complex II subunits and both relevant assembly factors are nuclear-encoded and
therefore present at the same dose in every tissue. The reporting authors sequenced
SDHB, SDHD and SDHAF1 and found no modifier allele. What remains is a
tissue-dependent difference in how much residual complex II a cell can tolerate, or
in how efficiently the destabilised interface is assembled or degraded in cardiac
mitochondria, and neither has been tested.
biological_scale: MOLECULAR
molecular_functions:
- preferred_term: succinate dehydrogenase activity
modifier: DECREASED
term:
id: GO:0000104
label: succinate dehydrogenase activity
locations:
- preferred_term: myocardium
term:
id: UBERON:0002349
label: myocardium
downstream:
- target: Cardiomyocyte Bioenergetic Failure
causal_link_type: DIRECT
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: IN_VITRO
snippet: "The cardiomyopathy is presumably caused by the significant tissue-specific reduction in SDH enzymatic activity in the heart muscle, whereas substantial activity is retained in the skeletal muscle and lymphoblastoid cells."
explanation: >-
The tissue-restriction claim this node makes, in the source's own words, including
its own hedge ("presumably"). Graded IN_VITRO because the statement reports enzyme
activities assayed in tissue and cell samples, which is what the sentence is about,
even though the paper as a whole is a clinical genetics report.
- name: Cardiomyocyte Bioenergetic Failure
description: >-
Loss of complex II activity in the cardiomyocyte interrupts two coupled pathways at
once, which is the specific consequence of the lesion sitting in this enzyme rather
than in any other respiratory-chain complex. Succinate is no longer efficiently
oxidised to fumarate, so tricarboxylic acid cycle flux is impaired; and the electrons
that oxidation would have delivered no longer reach ubiquinone, so that entry point
into the electron transport chain is lost. The result is a chronic shortfall in
oxidative ATP supply in a tissue with continuous, non-negotiable contractile demand
and little capacity to reduce it.
biological_scale: CELLULAR
cell_types:
- preferred_term: cardiomyocyte
term:
id: CL:0000746
label: cardiac muscle cell
biological_processes:
- preferred_term: tricarboxylic acid cycle
modifier: DECREASED
term:
id: GO:0006099
label: tricarboxylic acid cycle
- preferred_term: "mitochondrial electron transport, succinate to ubiquinone"
modifier: DECREASED
term:
id: GO:0006121
label: "mitochondrial electron transport, succinate to ubiquinone"
- preferred_term: oxidative phosphorylation
modifier: DECREASED
term:
id: GO:0006119
label: oxidative phosphorylation
downstream:
- target: Left Ventricular Dilatation and Systolic Dysfunction
causal_link_type: DIRECT
evidence:
- reference: PMID:33162331
reference_title: "The genetic basis of isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: OTHER
snippet: "it oxidises succinate to fumarate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the electrons are used to reduce FAD to FADH2, ultimately reducing ubiquinone to ubiquinol in the respiratory chain"
explanation: >-
Establishes the dual pathway membership that makes a single complex II lesion block
both the TCA cycle and electron transport, which is the claim this node makes.
Graded OTHER because it is a review statement of established biochemistry.
- reference: PMID:11692162
reference_title: "Phenotypic dichotomy in mitochondrial complex II genetic disorders."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: OTHER
snippet: "Complex II oxidizes succinate to fumarate in the Krebs cycle and is involved in the mitochondrial electron transport chain."
explanation: >-
Independent statement of the same coupling from a second review. Graded OTHER for
the same reason.
- name: Left Ventricular Dilatation and Systolic Dysfunction
description: >-
The structural and functional cardiac phenotype: chamber dilatation with impaired
contraction, the defining morphology of dilated cardiomyopathy, arising here from a
metabolic rather than a sarcomeric insult. In this cohort it is present from the
neonatal period or the first months of life, and in one patient it was detected
before birth.
biological_scale: TISSUE
locations:
- preferred_term: heart
term:
id: UBERON:0000948
label: heart
downstream:
- target: Congestive Heart Failure and Death in Infancy
causal_link_type: DIRECT
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "the most frequent form is dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), which is characterized by dilatation of the left or both ventricles and impaired systolic function"
explanation: >-
Defines the structural phenotype this node asserts. The sentence is the paper's
general definition of DCM rather than a measurement in this cohort, and is used
only for the definition.
- name: Congestive Heart Failure and Death in Infancy
description: >-
The clinical endpoint. Presentation is with heart failure or cardiogenic shock in
the neonatal period or the first months of life, and the majority of the reported
cohort died of cardiac causes in infancy. Survivors reported exercise intolerance
but had normal neuromuscular function and psychomotor development, which is the
observation that makes this an isolated cardiomyopathy rather than a mitochondrial
syndrome with a cardiac component.
biological_scale: ORGANISM
downstream: []
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "This condition, unfortunately, is marked by high mortality, with two-thirds succumbing to cardiac failure."
explanation: >-
The cohort's own mortality and its mode, which is what this node asserts. Replaces
an earlier revision's use of the paper's general framing sentence about DCM.
phenotypes:
- category: Cardiovascular
name: Dilated cardiomyopathy
description: >-
The defining feature, present in every reported patient, with onset in the neonatal
period or the first months of life.
phenotype_term:
preferred_term: Dilated cardiomyopathy
term:
id: HP:0001644
label: Dilated cardiomyopathy
onset:
onset_category: NEONATAL
notes: >-
Onset is neonatal or within the first months of life, and in one patient the
cardiomyopathy was detected in utero. This timing is what separates the entity
from adult-onset familial dilated cardiomyopathy. Recorded as a structured onset
descriptor rather than as a separate HP:0003623 phenotype, because onset terms
are not members of the PhenotypeTerm enum.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "we present the association of a mutation in the SDHA gene with recessive neonatal isolated DCM in 15 patients of two large consanguineous Bedouin families."
explanation: Names dilated cardiomyopathy as the phenotype of the whole reported cohort.
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "In all, 15 Bedouin patients of one tribe who presented with cardiomyopathy, between the ages of 32 weeks"
explanation: >-
The cohort's own age range at presentation, beginning in utero, which is what the
onset descriptor on this phenotype records.
- category: Cardiovascular
name: Congestive heart failure
description: >-
Presentation is with heart failure or cardiogenic shock, and heart failure was the
cause of death in the patients who died.
phenotype_term:
preferred_term: Congestive heart failure
term:
id: HP:0001635
label: Congestive heart failure
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "This condition, unfortunately, is marked by high mortality, with two-thirds succumbing to cardiac failure."
explanation: >-
Cardiac failure as the clinical course in this cohort, rather than the paper's
general framing sentence about dilated cardiomyopathy at large.
- category: Cardiovascular
name: Death from cardiac failure
description: >-
Mortality is high and the mode of death is heart failure, not arrhythmia. Two-thirds
of the cohort died of cardiac failure; a single sudden death is recorded in the
patient table. An earlier revision of this entry described sudden cardiac death as
the outcome in the majority, which the source does not support and which is corrected
here.
frequency: FREQUENT
phenotype_term:
preferred_term: Congestive heart failure
term:
id: HP:0001635
label: Congestive heart failure
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "This condition, unfortunately, is marked by high mortality, with two-thirds succumbing to cardiac failure."
explanation: >-
States the mortality rate and, specifically, that the mode of death is cardiac
failure. This is the sentence that fixes the direction of the earlier overstatement.
- category: Metabolic
name: Decreased activity of mitochondrial complex II
description: >-
Reduced succinate dehydrogenase activity is demonstrable on assay, but severely so
only in cardiac muscle; skeletal muscle and lymphoblastoid cells retain substantial
activity. A normal skeletal-muscle result therefore does not exclude the diagnosis,
which is the practical consequence of the tissue restriction.
phenotype_term:
preferred_term: Decreased activity of mitochondrial complex II
term:
id: HP:0008314
label: Decreased activity of mitochondrial complex II
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: IN_VITRO
snippet: "The cardiomyopathy is presumably caused by the significant tissue-specific reduction in SDH enzymatic activity in the heart muscle, whereas substantial activity is retained in the skeletal muscle and lymphoblastoid cells."
explanation: >-
Reports the enzyme deficiency and, critically, its tissue distribution. Graded
IN_VITRO because the sentence reports enzyme activity measured in tissue and cell
samples.
- category: Cardiovascular
name: Left ventricular noncompaction
description: >-
Eight of the fifteen patients met echocardiographic criteria for left ventricular
noncompaction, so it is a common accompaniment of the dilated phenotype in this cohort
rather than an incidental finding.
frequency: FREQUENT
phenotype_term:
preferred_term: Left ventricular noncompaction
term:
id: HP:0030682
label: Left ventricular noncompaction
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "Eight infants were diagnosed with LVNC."
explanation: >-
The count this phenotype and its FREQUENT band rest on: eight of the fifteen
enrolled patients, which is 53%.
- category: Cardiovascular
name: Left ventricular hypertrophy
description: >-
Electrocardiography showed left ventricular hypertrophy in every patient, with a
normal corrected QT interval and sinus rhythm - so the electrical phenotype is one of
chamber overload rather than of a primary arrhythmia syndrome.
frequency: OBLIGATE
phenotype_term:
preferred_term: Left ventricular hypertrophy
term:
id: HP:0001712
label: Left ventricular hypertrophy
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "The electrocardiogram of all patients was sinus rhythm with LV hypertrophy and normal QTC interval."
explanation: >-
Reports the finding in all patients, which is the basis for the OBLIGATE frequency
band, and simultaneously records the normal rhythm and QTc.
- category: Metabolic
name: Increased circulating lactate concentration
description: >-
Lactate was mildly elevated at 3.7 mmol/l, and was the only abnormal laboratory index
reported. The mildness matters clinically: this is not the marked lactic acidosis that
would point towards Leigh syndrome, and its absence should not be taken to exclude the
diagnosis.
frequency: OCCASIONAL
phenotype_term:
preferred_term: Increased circulating lactate concentration
term:
id: HP:0002151
label: Increased circulating lactate concentration
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "The laboratory indices were normal except for mildly increased lactate of 3.7 mmol/l."
explanation: >-
The only abnormal laboratory finding reported, and its magnitude. The sentence also
supports the description's point that everything else was normal.
- category: Neurologic
name: Normal neuromuscular examination and psychomotor development
description: >-
Recorded as a phenotype because its absence is what defines the entity. Growth,
neuromuscular examination and psychomotor development were normal at presentation and
remained normal on follow-up, no patient had seizures, and brain MRI in two patients
showed no basal ganglia or cortical lesions, explicitly ruling out Leigh syndrome.
This is the observation that separates DCM1GG from mitochondrial complex II
deficiency, nuclear type 1 in a patient carrying the same allele.
frequency: OBLIGATE
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "During follow-up visits, the neuromuscular examinations remained normal and none of the patients had seizures."
explanation: >-
Documents sustained absence of neurological involvement, which is the discriminating
negative finding for this entity.
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "In two patients, a brain MRI was performed without any evidence of focal lesions in the basal ganglia or grey matter or cortex or brainstem, ruling out Leigh's syndrome."
explanation: >-
The imaging that excludes the alternative SDHA phenotype in this cohort, in the
source's own words.
notes: >-
No HP term is bound. This is the documented absence of a phenotype rather than a
phenotypic abnormality, and HPO's phenotypic-abnormality branch has no term for
"normal neuromuscular examination"; binding a normality to an abnormality term would
invert the claim.
genetic:
- name: SDHA
notes: >-
The only gene implicated in this disorder. All fifteen reported patients are
homozygous for the same missense allele, c.1664G>A p.(Gly555Glu), inherited within
two consanguineous kindreds from one founder population. The allele is not private
to this phenotype: the same homozygous genotype has been reported in a lethal
infantile presentation and in a relatively mild Leigh syndrome, which is why the
genotype cannot be used to assign a patient to this disease rather than to
mitochondrial complex II deficiency, nuclear type 1.
Penetrance is incomplete, and the exception was found inside the reported kindred
rather than inferred. The father of one patient proved to be homozygous for the same
allele while being clinically unaffected, with a normal physical assessment,
electrocardiogram and echocardiogram. His complex II enzymatic activity in
lymphoblastoid cells was reduced by 42%, closer to the patients than to the
heterozygous mother or to controls. So neither the genotype nor the measurable enzyme
deficit in an accessible tissue is sufficient for disease, and the counselling
consequence is direct: a homozygous result in an asymptomatic relative does not
predict cardiomyopathy.
gene_term:
preferred_term: SDHA
term:
id: hgnc:10680
label: SDHA
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "we present the association of a mutation in the SDHA gene with recessive neonatal isolated DCM in 15 patients of two large consanguineous Bedouin families."
explanation: The gene-disease association this record asserts.
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "Notably, the same mutation was previously reported to cause a multisystemic failure leading to neonatal death and Leigh's syndrome."
explanation: >-
The founding report itself records that the allele is shared with a different SDHA
phenotype, which is the basis for the caveat in this record's description.
- reference: PMID:16798039
reference_title: "Phenotypic variability of mitochondrial disease caused by a nuclear mutation in complex II."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "We report a patient with relatively mild Leigh syndrome and mitochondrial respiratory chain complex II deficiency caused by a homozygous G555E mutation in the nuclear encoded flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
explanation: >-
Independent documentation of the same homozygous allele producing Leigh syndrome
rather than isolated cardiomyopathy. Cited for the allele's phenotypic range, not
as a phenotype of this disorder.
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "To our surprise, the father of patient A2 was homozygous for the mutation."
explanation: >-
The penetrance finding. A homozygote in the same kindred was ascertained as an
unaffected parent, so homozygosity for this allele is not sufficient for disease.
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "His physical assessment was negative for any symptoms or other suspicious factors."
explanation: >-
Confirms the homozygous father was clinically unaffected on examination, which is
what makes this reduced penetrance rather than an unrecognised mild case.
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: IN_VITRO
snippet: "The enzymatic activity of the father's complex was decreased by 42%, being more similar to that of the patients compared with the heterozygous mother and controls"
explanation: >-
The decisive part of the penetrance finding: the unaffected homozygote's enzyme
deficit resembles the patients', not the carriers', so residual complex II activity
in an accessible tissue does not predict who becomes ill. Graded IN_VITRO because it
is an enzyme assay on lymphoblastoid cells.
biochemical:
- name: Succinate dehydrogenase activity in cardiac muscle
notes: >-
Respiratory-chain enzymology on cardiac tissue is the assay that demonstrates the
lesion in this disorder, and it is the only tissue in which the deficit is severe.
Assays on skeletal muscle or on cultured blood-derived cells retain substantial
activity and can therefore be misleadingly close to normal.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: IN_VITRO
snippet: "The cardiomyopathy is presumably caused by the significant tissue-specific reduction in SDH enzymatic activity in the heart muscle, whereas substantial activity is retained in the skeletal muscle and lymphoblastoid cells."
explanation: >-
The tissue-dependence of the assay result, which is what makes cardiac tissue the
informative sample. Graded IN_VITRO as an enzyme assay on tissue samples.
diagnosis:
- name: Molecular genetic testing of SDHA
description: >-
Sequencing SDHA is the definitive test and, in a family from the founder population
with a neonatal dilated cardiomyopathy, targeted testing for the c.1664G>A allele is
the direct route. Because the same genotype occurs in patients with Leigh syndrome,
a positive result establishes biallelic SDHA deficiency but does not by itself
assign the patient to this disease rather than to mitochondrial complex II
deficiency, nuclear type 1; that assignment rests on the clinical distribution.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "we present the association of a mutation in the SDHA gene with recessive neonatal isolated DCM in 15 patients of two large consanguineous Bedouin families."
explanation: Establishes SDHA genotyping as the test that identifies affected individuals.
- name: Respiratory-chain enzymology on cardiac tissue
description: >-
Measuring succinate dehydrogenase activity establishes the biochemical diagnosis,
but the tissue chosen determines whether the defect is seen. Cardiac muscle shows the
severe deficit; skeletal muscle and lymphoblastoid cells retain substantial activity,
so a near-normal result in those tissues does not exclude the disorder.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: IN_VITRO
snippet: "The cardiomyopathy is presumably caused by the significant tissue-specific reduction in SDH enzymatic activity in the heart muscle, whereas substantial activity is retained in the skeletal muscle and lymphoblastoid cells."
explanation: >-
The basis for the tissue-choice caveat that makes this a diagnostic pitfall.
Graded IN_VITRO as an enzyme assay on tissue samples.
treatments:
- name: Heart Failure Supportive Care
description: >-
There is no disease-specific therapy. Management is the supportive care of neonatal
and infantile heart failure, directed at the congestive heart failure curated in this
entry's phenotypes rather than at the enzyme defect. Its inclusion here reflects the
clinical need the disorder creates, not a treatment shown to alter this disorder's
course.
therapeutic_modality: OTHER
treatment_term:
preferred_term: Supportive Care
term:
id: NCIT:C15747
label: Supportive Care
target_phenotypes:
- preferred_term: Congestive heart failure
term:
id: HP:0001635
label: Congestive heart failure
evidence:
- reference: PMID:37064335
reference_title: "Two Patients Diagnosed as Succinate Dehydrogenase Deficiency: Case Report."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "There is no cure for complex II deficiency"
explanation: >-
Establishes that no curative therapy exists for complex II deficiency, which is why
management is supportive. Cited for the treatment landscape of the biochemical
class; this report's own patients do not have this disorder.
- name: Cardiac Transplantation
description: >-
The definitive intervention when medical management fails, and the reason the cohort's
mortality is not simply inevitable. It is class-level management of paediatric dilated
cardiomyopathy rather than a therapy shown to work in this genotype, and no transplant
outcome has been reported for a p.Gly555Glu patient. The indication is the congestive
heart failure curated in this entry's phenotypes. Note the mechanistic caveat that
makes this reasonable rather than merely conventional: the enzyme defect is severe in
myocardium and only partial elsewhere, so replacing the heart replaces the tissue in
which the lesion actually matters.
therapeutic_modality: SURGERY
treatment_term:
preferred_term: Organ Transplantation
term:
id: NCIT:C15289
label: Organ Transplantation
target_phenotypes:
- preferred_term: Congestive heart failure
term:
id: HP:0001635
label: Congestive heart failure
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "DCM is the most frequent form of cardiomyopathy and the major cause of cardiac transplantation in children, accounting for >50% of all cardiac transplantations performed in patients between 1 and 10 years of age."
explanation: >-
Establishes transplantation as the standard endpoint intervention for paediatric
dilated cardiomyopathy, which is the class this disorder belongs to. Stated by this
entity's own founding report, though as background rather than as a cohort result.
- name: Genetic Counseling
description: >-
Both reported kindreds are consanguineous and share one founder allele, so carrier
testing and reproductive counselling are directly actionable for the extended family
and for the wider founder population. The indication is the autosomal recessive
inheritance curated in this entry. Cascade testing of relatives needs one caveat
stated up front, because the founding report ran into it: a homozygous result does not
predict disease. The father of one patient carried two copies of the allele and was
clinically normal, so an asymptomatic homozygous relative should be offered cardiac
surveillance rather than a diagnosis.
therapeutic_modality: BEHAVIORAL
treatment_term:
preferred_term: Genetic Counseling
term:
id: NCIT:C15240
label: Genetic Counseling
evidence:
- reference: PMID:20551992
reference_title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "we present the association of a mutation in the SDHA gene with recessive neonatal isolated DCM in 15 patients of two large consanguineous Bedouin families."
explanation: >-
The recessive inheritance in consanguineous kindreds that makes carrier counselling
the actionable intervention for these families.
experimental_models:
- name: HAP1 SDHA-knockout cell line with single-variant reintroduction
experimental_model_type: CELL_LINE
description: >-
A clonal human SDHA-knockout line into which individual SDHA missense variants are
reintroduced by site-specific recombination, after which succinate dehydrogenase
activity and SDHA protein abundance are measured for each variant. It is the only
published system in which this disorder's allele has been assayed in isolation in a
human genetic background. The panel includes p.Gly555Glu, which scores at the low end
of enzymatic activity, and the authors attribute its effect to disruption of
SDHA-SDHB binding - a full-text derivation recorded in this entry's notes rather than
a verified quotation, because the cached reference is abstract-only and names no
individual variant.
publication: PMID:39321216
modeled_mechanisms:
- target: Destabilised Flavoprotein-Iron-Sulfur Subunit Interface
relationship: MEASURES
fidelity: MODERATE
description: >-
The system measures the enzymatic consequence of the single allele on a null
background, isolating the variant's effect from genetic modifiers and from the
patient's tissue context. It agrees with the independent immunochemical evidence
from patient material that the lesion is at the SDHA-SDHB interface.
limitations: >-
The study was designed to classify cancer-associated variants, not to model a
cardiomyopathy, and HAP1 is a near-haploid chronic myelogenous leukaemia derivative
rather than a cardiomyocyte - so it cannot address the tissue restriction that
defines this disease, which is its central mechanistic question. The assay measures
variant function on a knockout background at non-native expression, not the
biology of a homozygous germline allele in myocardium. The authors themselves note
that activity-score similarity between p.Gly555Glu and an unrelated cancer variant
may reflect artefacts of this model system.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:39321216
reference_title: "A Novel Human SDHA-Knockout Cell Line Model for the Functional Analysis of Clinically Relevant SDHA Variants."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: IN_VITRO
snippet: "SDHA variants were introduced into a clonal SDHA-knockout cell line via Bxb1-mediated recombination. SDH activity and SDHA abundance were determined for each variant"
explanation: >-
Describes the system and the measurement, which is what makes it informative for
the interface node. Scoped to the abstract's account of the assay design; the
inclusion of p.Gly555Glu in the panel is a full-text derivation and is not
claimed by this snippet.
- reference: PMID:39321216
reference_title: "A Novel Human SDHA-Knockout Cell Line Model for the Functional Analysis of Clinically Relevant SDHA Variants."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: IN_VITRO
snippet: "In total, we characterized 72 variants, developed criteria for obtaining functional evidence, and demonstrated the potential of this evidence for clinical variant interpretation."
explanation: >-
The scale of the panel, which is the aggregate statement that can be quoted from
the cached abstract in support of this variant having been assayed among them.
animal_models:
- name: Sdhaf4 conditional-null mouse
species: Mouse
genotype: Sdhaf4 fl/fl; Ckmm-Cre (muscle-directed) and Sdhaf4 fl/fl; Mer-CreMer (tamoxifen-inducible, cardiomyocyte-specific)
background: Conditional knockout of the complex II assembly factor Sdhaf4
category: GENETIC
description: >-
The closest published in vivo model of the process this disease destroys, though not
of its gene. Conditional deletion of Sdhaf4, the assembly factor that brings SDHA
together with SDHB, suppresses complex II assembly in the heart and produces
progressive dilated cardiomyopathy and lethal heart failure, with no mutant surviving
beyond twelve weeks. Two independent Cre drivers give the same result, one
muscle-directed and one tamoxifen-inducible and cardiomyocyte-specific, which
establishes the phenotype as cardiomyocyte-autonomous rather than an artefact of one
deletion strategy.
Its relevance to this entry is specific and mechanistic rather than generic: loss of
Sdhaf4 attenuates the SDHA-SDHB interaction and leads to subunit degradation, which is
the same interface failure that the p.Gly555Glu substitution produces by a different
route. The authors make the connection themselves, citing the human G555E
cardiomyopathy report as the reason to expect complex II assembly to matter for
cardiac homeostasis.
publication: PMID:35803927
genes:
- preferred_term: SDHAF4
term:
id: hgnc:20957
label: SDHAF4
notes: >-
`genes:` records SDHAF4, the gene this model actually deletes, not SDHA, the gene of
the disease it informs. That follows the convention in the rest of the KB - the
ADGRG1 polymicrogyria entry carries a Col3a1-null mouse under `genes: Col3a1`, and
Adams-Oliver Syndrome carries a conditional Rac1 deletion under `genes: RAC1` - and
it keeps the field consistent with the `limitations` on the links below, which say
the lesion is in a different gene. The connection to SDHA is the mechanism links
themselves, not the gene binding.
modeled_mechanisms:
- target: Destabilised Flavoprotein-Iron-Sulfur Subunit Interface
relationship: PARTIALLY_RECAPITULATES
fidelity: MODERATE
description: >-
The model reproduces the molecular lesion at the level of the SDHA-SDHB interaction
and its consequence, subunit degradation and loss of assembled complex II, which is
what the human immunochemistry shows. It reaches that state by removing the
assembly factor rather than by destabilising the interface from within the
flavoprotein.
limitations: >-
The lesion is in a different gene. Sdhaf4 is an assembly factor, not a structural
subunit, and the model is a conditional null rather than a hypomorphic missense
allele, so residual complex II is likely lower and the failure mode is absence of
assembly rather than instability of an assembled interface. Nothing in the model
speaks to whether a p.Gly555Glu holoenzyme behaves the same way once assembled.
readouts:
- name: Coimmunoprecipitation of SDHB with SDHA from cardiac left ventricle
target: Destabilised Flavoprotein-Iron-Sulfur Subunit Interface
direction: DECREASED
interpretation: >-
Reduced recovery of SDHB with SDHA indicates that the interaction between the
flavoprotein and the iron-sulfur subunit is weakened, which is the molecular event
this node asserts.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:35803927
reference_title: "Cardiac disruption of SDHAF4-mediated mitochondrial complex II assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: MODEL_ORGANISM
snippet: "Immunoprecipitation assays using cardiac muscle tissues showed that abrogation of Sdhaf4 attenuated the interaction between SDHA and SDHB"
explanation: Reports the coimmunoprecipitation measurement behind this readout.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:35803927
reference_title: "Cardiac disruption of SDHAF4-mediated mitochondrial complex II assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: MODEL_ORGANISM
snippet: "Cardiac loss of Sdhaf4 suppresses complex II assembly and results in subunit degradation and complex II deficiency in fetal mice."
explanation: >-
Establishes that the model produces the assembly failure and subunit loss that
make it informative for this node.
- reference: PMID:35803927
reference_title: "Cardiac disruption of SDHAF4-mediated mitochondrial complex II assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: MODEL_ORGANISM
snippet: "A G555E mutation in the SDHA gene has been reported to cause DCM10, thereby indicating that the normal function of complex II is required to maintain cardiac homeostasis."
explanation: >-
The model's authors cite this entity's own allele as the human precedent for their
premise, which is the explicit link between the model and this disease. The
trailing digits are a superscript reference marker in the source text and are
quoted as they appear.
- target: Left Ventricular Dilatation and Systolic Dysfunction
relationship: RECAPITULATES
fidelity: MODERATE
description: >-
Cardiac complex II assembly failure produces the same structural and functional
cardiac endpoint as the human disease: ventricular chamber dilation with reduced
fractional shortening and impaired contraction, progressing to lethal heart failure.
limitations: >-
The timing and the tissue distribution are both engineered rather than emergent. The
human disease presents in the neonatal period and its cardiac restriction is
unexplained, whereas in the mouse the restriction is imposed by the Cre driver, so
the model cannot address the tissue-selectivity question that defines this disorder.
Mouse disease also develops over weeks in the postnatal animal rather than in
utero or in the first months, and the mutant hearts show hypertrophic and fibrotic
remodelling with collagen deposition that has not been reported in patients with
this disorder.
readouts:
- name: Left ventricular fractional shortening by echocardiography
target: Left Ventricular Dilatation and Systolic Dysfunction
direction: DECREASED
interpretation: >-
Reduced fractional shortening is the functional correlate of the systolic
dysfunction this node asserts.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:35803927
reference_title: "Cardiac disruption of SDHAF4-mediated mitochondrial complex II assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: MODEL_ORGANISM
snippet: "a significant decrease in left ventricular fractional shortening (FS%) and deregulated cardiac contraction were detected in the mutants, indicating that the loss of Sdhaf4 impairs heart function"
explanation: Reports the echocardiographic measurement behind this readout.
- name: Ventricular chamber dilation on gross morphology and histology
target: Left Ventricular Dilatation and Systolic Dysfunction
direction: INCREASED
interpretation: >-
Progressive chamber dilation is the structural correlate of the dilated phenotype
this node asserts.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:35803927
reference_title: "Cardiac disruption of SDHAF4-mediated mitochondrial complex II assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: MODEL_ORGANISM
snippet: "Dilation of the ventricular chambers was observed at later stages, suggesting that the loss of Sdhaf4 in muscle results in progressive cardiac remodeling and DCM"
explanation: Reports the morphological observation behind this readout.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:35803927
reference_title: "Cardiac disruption of SDHAF4-mediated mitochondrial complex II assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: MODEL_ORGANISM
snippet: "thereby causing progressive dilated cardiomyopathy and lethal heart failure in animals"
explanation: >-
States the cardiac endpoint that makes this model informative for the human
structural phenotype.
- target: Cardiomyocyte Bioenergetic Failure
relationship: RESCUES
fidelity: LOW
description: >-
The model's rescue arms are the only in vivo evidence that the cardiac phenotype of
complex II assembly failure is metabolically tractable: replacing the missing
downstream metabolite with fumarate, or blocking the mitochondrial fission that the
energetic deficit provokes, partially restores cardiac function and prolongs
survival. This is recorded because it is the closest thing to a therapeutic lead
this disease has, not because it has been tried in patients.
limitations: >-
Fidelity is recorded as LOW because the rescue was performed in an assembly-factor
knockout, not in an SDHA missense model, and never in a patient. Whether fumarate
supplementation would benefit a p.Gly555Glu heart is untested, and the rescue is
explicitly partial in the mouse. No treatment is curated in this entry on the
strength of it.
readouts:
- name: Cardiac function and lifespan after fumarate supplementation or fission inhibition
target: Cardiomyocyte Bioenergetic Failure
direction: RESTORED
interpretation: >-
Partial functional recovery on metabolite replacement indicates that the
bioenergetic deficit is a driver of the cardiac phenotype rather than a bystander.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:35803927
reference_title: "Cardiac disruption of SDHAF4-mediated mitochondrial complex II assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: MODEL_ORGANISM
snippet: "Targeting mitochondria via supplementation with fumarate or inhibiting mitochondrial fission improves mitochondrial dynamics, partially restores cardiac function and prolongs the lifespan of mutant mice."
explanation: Reports the rescue result behind this readout, including its own "partially" qualifier.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:35803927
reference_title: "Cardiac disruption of SDHAF4-mediated mitochondrial complex II assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: MODEL_ORGANISM
snippet: "These findings reveal a vital role for complex II assembly in the development of dilated cardiomyopathy and provide additional insights into therapeutic interventions for heart diseases."
explanation: >-
The authors' own summary of why the rescue matters for complex II-driven dilated
cardiomyopathy.
differential_diagnoses:
- name: Mitochondrial complex II deficiency, nuclear type 1
disease_term:
preferred_term: mitochondrial complex II deficiency, nuclear type 1
term:
id: MONDO:0100294
label: mitochondrial complex II deficiency, nuclear type 1
description: >-
The primary differential and the genuinely hard one, curated separately in
`kb/disorders/Mitochondrial_Complex_II_Deficiency_Nuclear_Type_1.yaml`. It is not a
mimicking disease but the other phenotypic outcome of the same lesion, and unlike the
boundary with NDAXOA it cannot be drawn by zygosity: both are biallelic, and the
p.Gly555Glu allele this entry is built on has itself been reported homozygous in a
lethal infantile presentation and in Leigh syndrome. The discriminator is which organ
failed, and nothing published explains why it differs.
distinguishing_features:
- Neurological involvement is the discriminator. MC2DN1 presents with Leigh syndrome, leukodystrophy, developmental regression or seizures; the DCM1GG cohort had psychomotor development appropriate for age and no seizures.
- Zygosity does not separate them. Both are recessive and biallelic, and the same homozygous p.Gly555Glu genotype has been published in both phenotypes.
- Where cardiomyopathy occurs in MC2DN1 it is accompanied by other organ involvement, such as the reported patient with cardiomyopathy and leukodystrophy; in DCM1GG the cardiac disease is isolated.
- "The tissue distribution of the enzyme deficit differs in kind: in DCM1GG the deficiency is severe in myocardium and partial elsewhere, whereas isolated complex II deficiency in MC2DN1 is characteristically demonstrable in skeletal muscle or fibroblasts."
notes: >-
This differential is also a coverage overlap rather than only a clinical contrast.
The MC2DN1 entry already cites PMID:20551992, the founding report of this entity,
under a `Cardiomyopathy` phenotype node. That file was read and deliberately not
modified here; the overlap is recorded in this entry's top-level notes.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:22972948
reference_title: "Recessive germline SDHA and SDHB mutations causing leukodystrophy and isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "the first patient presented with cardiomyopathy and leukodystrophy due to compound heterozygous p.Thr508Ile and p.Ser509Leu SDHA mutations"
explanation: >-
Documents the combination that marks the other side of this boundary - cardiac
disease accompanied by white-matter disease, in a patient with different SDHA
alleles - against which this entry's isolated cardiac phenotype is defined.
- reference: PMID:16798039
reference_title: "Phenotypic variability of mitochondrial disease caused by a nuclear mutation in complex II."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "This mutation has previously been reported in a lethal-infantile presentation of complex II deficiency."
explanation: >-
Establishes that the allele underlying this entry has also produced non-cardiac
disease, which is why the genotype cannot serve as the discriminator between these
two entities.
- name: SDHA-related neurodegeneration with ataxia and late-onset optic atrophy
disease_term:
preferred_term: neurodegeneration with ataxia and late-onset optic atrophy
term:
id: MONDO:0031006
label: neurodegeneration with ataxia and late-onset optic atrophy
description: >-
The dominant SDHA phenotype, curated in
`kb/disorders/SDHA-Related_Neurodegeneration_With_Ataxia_And_Optic_Atrophy.yaml`,
which already carries this disorder as a reciprocal differential. It is a relevant
differential in exactly one situation: an infant with cardiomyopathy and an SDHA
variant, because cardiomyopathy was the presenting and lethal feature in the
paediatric carriers of one NDAXOA pedigree. The statements below are written to agree
with that entry's.
distinguishing_features:
- Zygosity separates these two. DCM1GG is recessive and homozygous; NDAXOA arises from a single heterozygous missense allele, so a parent is either affected or the variant is de novo.
- DCM1GG is cardiac-predominant without the optic atrophy that defines NDAXOA, so a family history of visual loss argues for NDAXOA.
- The NDAXOA pedigree with childhood cardiomyopathy also contained an adult with optic atrophy carrying the same allele; DCM1GG families have reported no ophthalmological or neurological disease.
- MONDO keeps the two as separate terms with separate OMIM anchors, MONDO:0013339/OMIM:613642 and MONDO:0031006/OMIM:619259, both mapped to SDHA.
notes: >-
These distinguishing features are the reciprocal of those recorded in the NDAXOA
entry's differential for MONDO:0013339 and are deliberately consistent with them
rather than independently derived. That entry states that the distinction rests on
zygosity and on whether neurological or ophthalmological features later appear in the
family, which the founding report of this entity supports: its patients are
homozygous, and their neuromuscular function and psychomotor development were normal.
- name: Pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma syndrome 5
disease_term:
preferred_term: pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma syndrome 5
term:
id: MONDO:0013602
label: pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma syndrome 5
description: >-
The fourth SDHA disease term, and the one that dominates an SDHA literature search
while having no clinical overlap with this entity. It is included because the shared
gene means a DCM1GG genotype result will be read by clinicians against a tumour
surveillance background, not because the two present alike.
distinguishing_features:
- PGL5 arises from single heterozygous germline alleles acting as tumour-suppressor first hits and requires a somatic second hit in the tumour; DCM1GG is a constitutive biallelic enzymatic deficit with no second hit.
- "The mechanisms diverge at succinate: in PGL5 its accumulation acts as an oncometabolite driving pseudohypoxia and epigenetic remodelling, whereas the pathogenic consequence curated here is bioenergetic failure in myocardium."
- No tumour has been reported in the DCM1GG kindreds and no paraganglioma family has reported neonatal dilated cardiomyopathy.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:11692162
reference_title: "Phenotypic dichotomy in mitochondrial complex II genetic disorders."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: OTHER
snippet: "While mutations in SDHA display a phenotype resembling other mitochondrial and Krebs cycle gene defects, those in SDHB, SDHC and SDHD cause hereditary paraganglioma."
explanation: >-
States the dichotomy this differential rests on, and specifically places SDHA on
the mitochondrial-disease side of it. Graded OTHER because it is a review.
- reference: PMID:33162331
reference_title: "The genetic basis of isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: OTHER
snippet: "either susceptibility to cancer in the case of single, heterozygous germline variants, or a mitochondrial disease presentation, almost exclusively due to bi-allelic recessive variants"
explanation: >-
Ties the two clinical outcomes of complex II defects to zygosity, which is the
feature that separates this entity from the tumour syndrome.
discussions:
- discussion_id: dcm1gg_cardiac_tissue_restriction
kind: KNOWLEDGE_GAP
status: OPEN
prompt: >-
Why is the succinate dehydrogenase deficit severe in myocardium and only partial in
skeletal muscle and lymphoblastoid cells, when every subunit and assembly factor of
complex II is nuclear-encoded and the causal allele is homozygous in every cell?
attaches_to:
- pathophysiology#Myocardium-Restricted Loss of Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity
- disease#Dilated Cardiomyopathy 1GG
rationale: >-
This is the entity's defining unexplained fact, and the reporting authors raise it
themselves rather than leaving it to a reader. The usual explanation for
tissue-restricted respiratory-chain disease is heteroplasmy, and it is unavailable
here: complex II is the only respiratory-chain complex encoded entirely in the
nuclear genome, so gene dosage is identical in every tissue. The obvious alternative,
a modifier in another complex II gene, was tested and excluded - SDHB, SDHD and
SDHAF1 were sequenced and carried nothing. What remains untested is whether cardiac
mitochondria assemble or degrade the destabilised holoenzyme differently, or whether
the myocardium simply has the lowest tolerance for a given residual activity because
of its continuous contractile demand. The question is not academic: it is the reason
this disease is separable from mitochondrial complex II deficiency, nuclear type 1
at all, and answering it would determine whether the boundary between those two
entities is mechanistic or merely descriptive.
proposed_experiments:
- experiment_id: dcm1gg_tissue_assembly_comparison
name: Comparative complex II assembly and turnover across cardiac and skeletal muscle mitochondria
description: >-
Measure assembled complex II holoenzyme abundance, subunit steady-state levels and
subunit turnover rate in cardiac versus skeletal muscle mitochondria carrying the
homozygous p.Gly555Glu allele, to test whether the tissue difference lies in
assembly efficiency or in degradation of the destabilised complex rather than in
downstream tolerance.
would_support:
- pathophysiology#Myocardium-Restricted Loss of Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity
supporting_outcome:
- >-
Assembled holoenzyme is disproportionately reduced in cardiac mitochondria relative
to skeletal muscle at equal subunit expression, locating the tissue difference at
assembly or turnover.
would_refute:
- pathophysiology#Myocardium-Restricted Loss of Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity
refuting_outcome:
- >-
Assembly and turnover are equivalent between the two tissues, which would move the
explanation downstream to differential tolerance of a shared enzymatic deficit and
leave this node's framing as a tissue-level assembly phenomenon unsupported.
- discussion_id: dcm1gg_one_genotype_three_phenotypes
kind: KNOWLEDGE_GAP
status: OPEN
prompt: >-
Why does one homozygous SDHA genotype, p.Gly555Glu, produce isolated neonatal dilated
cardiomyopathy in two Bedouin kindreds, a lethal infantile multisystem presentation in
one proband, and a relatively mild Leigh syndrome in another?
attaches_to:
- genetic#SDHA
- pathophysiology#SDHA p.Gly555Glu Homozygosity
rationale: >-
Marked phenotypic heterogeneity is expected of heteroplasmic mitochondrial DNA
mutations and is unusual for a nuclear allele, and the source that reports the Leigh
presentation says exactly that. It also closes off the most obvious explanation:
enzyme activities and enzyme stability were comparable between the patients with
different phenotypes, so the divergence is not a matter of one patient having less
residual complex II than another. That leaves unidentified genetic background,
environmental or perinatal factors, or stochastic developmental effects, none of which
has been investigated. This gap is the reason this entry cannot claim that its
genotype is diagnostic of its phenotype, and it bears directly on the differential
with mitochondrial complex II deficiency, nuclear type 1.
- discussion_id: dcm1gg_no_animal_model
kind: KNOWLEDGE_GAP
status: OPEN
prompt: >-
No in vivo model carries SDHA p.Gly555Glu, and the one cardiac complex II model that
exists disables an assembly factor in a tissue chosen by the experimenter. What model
would let the tissue selectivity of this disease be studied rather than assumed?
attaches_to:
- pathophysiology#Myocardium-Restricted Loss of Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity
- disease#Dilated Cardiomyopathy 1GG
rationale: >-
No model of this disorder's allele exists, but the gap is narrower than "no model",
and the distinction matters. A conditional cardiac knockout of Sdhaf4, the assembly
factor that brings SDHA together with SDHB, is curated in this entry's animal models:
it reproduces the SDHA-SDHB interface failure, the loss of assembled complex II, and
progressive lethal dilated cardiomyopathy, and it is the model in which fumarate
rescue was demonstrated. What it does not and cannot provide is the two things
peculiar to this disease. It carries a null allele of a different gene rather than a
hypomorphic missense substitution in the flavoprotein, so it cannot test whether an
assembled but destabilised holoenzyme behaves the same way; and its cardiac
restriction is imposed by the Cre driver rather than arising on its own, so it cannot
address why a homozygous allele present in every cell disables the heart alone.
Searches run on 2026-08-31 for Sdha knockout, knock-in, conditional-deletion and
heterozygous mouse models, for Drosophila SdhA models, and for Caenorhabditis elegans
complex II mutants returned no SDHA-subunit model of cardiomyopathy; the well-known
nematode complex II mutant mev-1 is a cytochrome b (SDHC) allele, not an SDHA one, and
the recently modelled SDHD H50R is a different subunit again. Beyond the Sdhaf4 mouse,
the published functional work on this entity's allele is confined to patient material
and to a human knockout cell line, both curated in this entry. Scarcity of models is a
recognised field-wide obstacle for complex II disease rather than a gap peculiar to
this disorder. The consequence here is specific: the tissue-restriction question above
cannot be settled in patient tissue alone, because the cardiac samples that would be
needed come only from autopsy.
proposed_experiments:
- experiment_id: dcm1gg_sdha_g555e_knockin_mouse
name: Knock-in mouse carrying the orthologous Sdha Gly555Glu substitution
description: >-
Generate a homozygous knock-in of the residue-equivalent substitution and compare
succinate dehydrogenase activity, assembled complex II abundance and contractile
function across heart, skeletal muscle and brain, to test whether the tissue
restriction reproduces outside the human founder background.
would_support:
- pathophysiology#Myocardium-Restricted Loss of Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity
supporting_outcome:
- >-
Homozygous animals show a cardiac-predominant enzyme deficit and dilated
cardiomyopathy with preserved neurological function, reproducing the human tissue
distribution.
would_refute:
- pathophysiology#Myocardium-Restricted Loss of Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity
refuting_outcome:
- >-
Homozygous animals show a uniform enzyme deficit across tissues, or an
encephalopathic rather than cardiac phenotype, indicating that the tissue
restriction depends on human-specific or founder-background factors rather than on
the allele.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:23174333
reference_title: "The role of complex II in disease."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: OTHER
snippet: "Further progress in understanding the role of complex II in disease, and in the development of new therapeutic approaches, is now being hampered by the lack of relevant cell and animal models."
explanation: >-
Published confirmation that the absence of models is a recognised, field-wide
obstacle for complex II disease rather than an artefact of this entry's searching.
Graded OTHER because it is a review.
- discussion_id: dcm1gg_riboflavin_untested
kind: KNOWLEDGE_GAP
status: OPEN
prompt: >-
Complex II is the only respiratory-chain complex with a flavin cofactor, and
riboflavin has been given to patients with complex II deficiency. Has it ever been
tried in the cardiac-restricted form, and would it be expected to help an allele whose
defect is a destabilised subunit interface rather than impaired flavinylation?
attaches_to:
- treatments#Heart Failure Supportive Care
- pathophysiology#Destabilised Flavoprotein-Iron-Sulfur Subunit Interface
rationale: >-
No treatment is curated for the enzyme defect in this entry because none is supported
for it, and this discussion records why rather than leaving the omission unexplained.
The evidence that exists is about complex II deficiency as a biochemical class, is
weak, and points in both directions: a systematic review of riboflavin across
inherited metabolic diseases classifies its effect in complex II deficiency as
uncertain by an explicit threshold, meaning fewer than three-quarters of patients
responded, while individual reports describe mild improvement on mitochondrial
cocktails that include riboflavin. None of that evidence comes from a patient with
this disorder. There is also a mechanistic reason for caution specific to this allele:
the defect here is a destabilised interface between the flavoprotein and the
iron-sulfur subunit, not a failure to acquire the flavin cofactor, so cofactor
supplementation does not have an obvious target. Curating riboflavin as a treatment of
this disease would assert an indication the literature does not support.
evidence:
- reference: PMID:42046426
reference_title: "Effectiveness of Riboflavin in Inherited Metabolic Diseases: A Systematic Review."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "The effect was uncertain in complex I and II deficiency, ethylmalonic encephalopathy, FAD synthase deficiency, glutaric aciduria type 1, L2 hydroxyglutaric aciduria, and MADD type 2."
explanation: >-
The systematic review's verdict for the biochemical class this disorder belongs to.
Graded HUMAN_CLINICAL because the review synthesises reported patient outcomes.
- reference: PMID:42046426
reference_title: "Effectiveness of Riboflavin in Inherited Metabolic Diseases: A Systematic Review."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "RF therapy was considered \"effective\" in an IMD if more than 75% of patients showed a positive response, \"uncertain\" in case of a positive response in fewer than 75% of patients"
explanation: >-
Defines what the "uncertain" verdict means, so the finding above is not read as a
stronger or weaker claim than it is.
- reference: PMID:37064335
reference_title: "Two Patients Diagnosed as Succinate Dehydrogenase Deficiency: Case Report."
supports: SUPPORT
evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
snippet: "some reported patients showed clinical improvement following riboflavin therapy"
explanation: >-
The countervailing observation, stated as a review of reported cases within a case
report. Cited for the treatment landscape of complex II deficiency; neither of this
report's patients has this disorder.
references:
- reference: PMID:20551992
title: "Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase."
- reference: PMID:12794685
title: "Homozygous Gly555Glu mutation in the nuclear-encoded 70 kDa flavoprotein gene causes instability of the respiratory chain complex II."
- reference: PMID:16798039
title: "Phenotypic variability of mitochondrial disease caused by a nuclear mutation in complex II."
- reference: PMID:33162331
title: "The genetic basis of isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency."
- reference: PMID:7550341
title: "Mutation of a nuclear succinate dehydrogenase gene results in mitochondrial respiratory chain deficiency."
- reference: PMID:11692162
title: "Phenotypic dichotomy in mitochondrial complex II genetic disorders."
- reference: PMID:23174333
title: "The role of complex II in disease."
- reference: PMID:22972948
title: "Recessive germline SDHA and SDHB mutations causing leukodystrophy and isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency."
- reference: PMID:39321216
title: "A Novel Human SDHA-Knockout Cell Line Model for the Functional Analysis of Clinically Relevant SDHA Variants."
- reference: PMID:42046426
title: "Effectiveness of Riboflavin in Inherited Metabolic Diseases: A Systematic Review."
- reference: PMID:37064335
title: "Two Patients Diagnosed as Succinate Dehydrogenase Deficiency: Case Report."
- reference: PMID:35803927
title: "Cardiac disruption of SDHAF4-mediated mitochondrial complex II assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy."
Deep research results are used as seeds for research; they do not undergo the same validation as the main records and may contain errors. How we use deep research.
Create: Dilated Cardiomyopathy 1GG (MONDO:0013339, SDHA) · 2026-08-31T17:33:03Z · View source
Curated de novo as entry_type DISEASE. The entity rests on one primary report (PMID:20551992): 15 patients from two consanguineous Bedouin families homozygous for SDHA c.1664G>A p.(Gly555Glu), presenting with neonatal isolated dilated cardiomyopathy. The pathograph is built around the tissue restriction of the enzyme defect, which is the entity's defining and unexplained feature: severe loss of succinate dehydrogenase activity in myocardium with substantial activity retained in skeletal muscle and lymphoblastoid cells. The molecular mechanism is a destabilised SDHA-SDHB interface, evidenced independently by patient immunochemistry (PMID:12794685) and by a human SDHA-knockout cell line panel (PMID:39321216, per-variant result full-text derived). A conditional cardiac Sdhaf4 knockout mouse (PMID:35803927) is curated in animal_models with three mechanism links; it was surfaced by the falcon deep-research report and reproduces the SDHA-SDHB interface failure and the dilated phenotype but not the allele or the tissue selectivity. Four knowledge gaps are recorded, the central one being why a homozygous allele present in every cell disables only the heart. No treatment is curated for the enzyme defect; riboflavin is recorded as a knowledge gap with opposed evidence rather than as a treatment. The MC2DN1 coverage overlap and the declined module conformance are disclosed in the entry notes. Validated with just validate (exit 0, 46/46 snippets verified against cached references).
Question: You are an expert researcher providing comprehensive, well-cited information.
Provide detailed information focusing on: 1. Key concepts and definitions with current understanding 2. Recent developments and latest research (prioritize 2023-2024 sources) 3. Current applications and real-world implementations 4. Expert opinions and analysis from authoritative sources 5. Relevant statistics and data from recent studies
Format as a comprehensive research report with proper citations. Include URLs and publication dates where available. Always prioritize recent, authoritative sources and provide specific citations for all major claims.
Please provide a comprehensive research report on Dilated Cardiomyopathy 1GG covering all of the disease characteristics listed below. This report will be used to populate a disease knowledge base entry. Be thorough and cite primary literature (PMID preferred) for all claims.
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Dilated cardiomyopathy 1GG is an exceptionally rare, predominantly neonatal/infantile, autosomal-recessive cardiomyopathy attributed to biallelic SDHA dysfunction. The defining evidence remains a 2010 study of 15 affected members of consanguineous Bedouin kindreds carrying homozygous SDHA c.1664G>A (p.Gly555Glu; G555E). Thus, most subtype-specific frequency and outcome estimates derive from one founder cohort and should not be generalized to every biallelic SDHA genotype. Open Targets independently associates SDHA with dilated, familial, and familial-isolated DCM, but this is aggregated secondary evidence rather than a new cohort (OpenTargets Search: Dilated cardiomyopathy-SDHA, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2).
The evidence can be summarized as follows:
| domain | finding | evidence type/strength | key source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disease identity | Dilated Cardiomyopathy 1GG is a Mendelian DCM subtype linked to SDHA; foundational reported causal variant is c.1664G>A (p.Gly555Glu / G555E) in homozygosity | Human primary family study; strong for variant-disease association in reported kindreds | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6) |
| Inheritance | Autosomal recessive inheritance in consanguineous families; affected individuals homozygous, available parents typically heterozygous | Human segregation evidence; strong within families | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 4-5) |
| Cohort/founder context | 15 Bedouin patients from two large consanguineous families of one tribe; authors infer a common founder | Human cohort description; moderate-strong | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3) |
| Onset/clinical spectrum | Onset ranged from 32 weeks gestation to 10 years; prominent pediatric/neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy with LV dilation and systolic dysfunction | Human case-series evidence; strong descriptive | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 3-4) |
| Core phenotype | Frequent features included respiratory distress, congestive heart failure, cardiogenic shock, cardiomegaly, LV dilation, reduced fractional shortening, and LV noncompaction in 8 infants | Human phenotype evidence; strong descriptive | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 3-4) |
| Mortality/course | Condition showed high mortality, with about two-thirds succumbing to cardiac failure; rapid deterioration resembles mitochondrial cardiomyopathy burden | Human case-series evidence; moderate-strong | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6) |
| Cardiac testing | ECG reportedly showed sinus rhythm, LV hypertrophy, normal QTc; lactate was usually normal except mild elevation to 3.7 mmol/L; two brain MRIs lacked Leigh-syndrome lesions | Human clinical testing evidence; moderate | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3) |
| Biochemical defect | Respiratory-chain testing showed tissue-specific complex II deficiency: skeletal muscle residual activity about 50-60%, versus myocardium about 15-18% for succinate dehydrogenase/complex II; succinate oxidation in muscle 26% in one assay | Human biochemical evidence; strong | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 4-5, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6) |
| Specificity/variability | Partial complex I decrease occurred in one patient, but normal aconitase argued against generalized iron-sulfur metabolism failure; phenotype showed marked intrafamilial variability | Human biochemical/clinical evidence; moderate | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6) |
| Reduced penetrance | One adult father was homozygous for the variant yet clinically unaffected on exam, ECG, and echocardiography despite reduced lymphoblast complex II activity, indicating nonpenetrance/reduced penetrance | Human observation; important but based on single individual | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 4-5, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6) |
| Mechanistic interpretation | Authors concluded disease is “presumably caused by the significant tissue-specific reduction in SDH enzymatic activity in the heart muscle,” while retaining more activity in skeletal muscle and lymphoblastoid cells | Human mechanistic inference anchored by enzyme assays; moderate | Levitas et al., 2010 (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6) |
| Supporting disease-gene mapping | Independent target-disease aggregation resources also map SDHA to dilated/familial isolated DCM | Aggregated database evidence; supportive but secondary | Open Targets association (OpenTargets Search: Dilated cardiomyopathy-SDHA) |
| Experimental mechanism relevance | In mice, cardiac Sdhaf4 loss impaired complex II assembly, promoted SDHA/SDHB degradation, metabolic impairment, DRP1-mediated mitochondrial fission/mitophagy, and progressive dilated cardiomyopathy/lethal heart failure | Mouse mechanistic study; strong for complex-II-to-DCM biology, indirect for DCM1GG | Wang et al., 2022 (wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 1-2, wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 10-12) |
| Experimental rescue relevance | In the Sdhaf4 mouse model, fumarate supplementation or mitochondrial fission inhibition partially restored cardiac function and prolonged lifespan | Mouse interventional evidence; hypothesis-generating, not subtype-specific clinical proof | Wang et al., 2022 (wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 1-2, wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 10-12) |
| Current diagnosis | Contemporary cardiomyopathy guidance emphasizes deep phenotyping, ECG, biomarkers, echocardiography/CMR, and genetic workup for hereditary cardiomyopathy | Recent guideline/review evidence; strong for general DCM practice | ESC-guideline summary 2024; guideline review 2025 (grasso2024thenew2023 pages 1-2, sorella2025diagnosisandmanagement pages 12-13) |
| Current family management | Genetic counselling and cascade screening of at-risk relatives are recommended when a pathogenic variant is identified; advanced HF care may require transplant/device evaluation | Recent guideline/review evidence; strong for general DCM practice | Guideline review 2025 (sorella2025diagnosisandmanagement pages 12-13) |
| Subtype-specific treatment evidence | No approved therapy, no validated SDHA/DCM1GG-specific treatment algorithm, and no clearly identified clinical trial dedicated to this subtype were found in the available evidence | Evidence gap / negative finding from searched literature and trials; moderate confidence | Available evidence corpus and trial searches (sorella2025diagnosisandmanagement pages 12-13, grasso2024thenew2023 pages 1-2) |
Table: This table compacts the strongest available evidence for Dilated Cardiomyopathy 1GG, separating direct human subtype evidence from indirect mechanistic and guideline evidence. It is useful for quickly identifying what is established, what is inferred, and where current evidence gaps remain.
Evidence notation used below: human-direct means observations in DCM1GG patients; human-indirect means findings in broader DCM or other SDHA disease; model means animal/cellular evidence not yet demonstrated in DCM1GG patients.
DCM1GG is a Mendelian mitochondrial-energy cardiomyopathy in which left or both ventricles become dilated and systolic function is impaired. In the defining families it was usually an isolated cardiac disorder, often beginning prenatally or in infancy, rather than the encephalomyopathic/Leigh phenotype also produced by biallelic SDHA variants. The paper’s exact abstract statement was: “we present the association of a mutation in the SDHA gene with recessive neonatal isolated DCM in 15 patients of two large consanguineous Bedouin families.” It further called the phenotype a “severe form of neonatal cardiomyopathy” with “extreme phenotypic variability” (published online 16 June 2010; PMID 20551992; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2010.83) (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2).
The foundational information is aggregated at disease/family level from deliberately recruited patients and medical-record review—not a population EHR analysis. The investigators reviewed growth, development, hospitalizations, laboratory studies, serial ECG and echocardiography, family examinations, and molecular/biochemical testing (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3).
The demonstrated initiating lesion is germline homozygosity for SDHA c.1664G>A, p.Gly555Glu. All tested affected individuals were homozygous; healthy siblings were heterozygous or homozygous reference, and almost all available parents were heterozygous. Linkage/autozygosity mapping identified a 5.6-cM segment containing SDHA, followed by cDNA and genomic sequencing (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 4-5).
The variant had previously been associated with lethal infantile multisystem disease and Leigh syndrome. Previous functional work cited by the family study showed destabilization/assembly failure of mitochondrial complex II and approximately halved activity in muscle or fibroblasts; it was absent from 186 historical control chromosomes. A modern global allele frequency and current ClinVar ACMG classification were not established by the retrieved evidence and must be checked directly against the current ClinVar/gnomAD release before curation (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 4-5, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6).
The following frequencies are from the 15-person founder cohort unless otherwise stated.
The reported enrollment/presentation spectrum extended from 32 weeks’ gestation to 10 years, but most tabulated symptomatic onsets were prenatal or at 1–8 months. Severity ranged from asymptomatic cardiomegaly/mild dysfunction to shock and death. Progression was generally chronic and often rapidly progressive in infancy, with recurrent heart-failure admissions; some survivors attended normal school into ages 7–11 years but experienced exercise intolerance (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 3-4).
No DCM1GG-specific EQ-5D, SF-36, PROMIS, or pediatric quality-of-life data exist in the retrieved literature. Respiratory distress, frequent hospitalization, exercise intolerance, and early mortality imply major family and functional burden, but a quantitative utility estimate would be unsupported.
All four SDH subunits are nuclear encoded: soluble SDHA and SDHB are anchored to the inner mitochondrial membrane by SDHC and SDHD. SDHA oxidizes succinate to fumarate while passing electrons into the respiratory chain through ubiquinone, linking the tricarboxylic-acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2, wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 1-2).
No validated modifier gene, methylation signature, chromatin lesion, pathogenic copy-number change, translocation, inversion, or aneuploidy has been established for DCM1GG. SDHAF1 was investigated but did not account for intrafamilial variability. CMA/karyotype/FISH are therefore not first-line tests for this single-nucleotide founder disorder unless the patient has additional congenital anomalies or sequencing is unrevealing (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 4-5, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6).
Heterozygous germline SDHA loss-of-function variants can confer tumor predisposition in other contexts, whereas DCM1GG is a recessive mitochondrial phenotype. These should not be conflated; cancer surveillance decisions require variant-specific genetics expertise and are not established from the G555E DCM cohort.
No toxin, radiation, pollutant, occupational exposure, smoking pattern, alcohol exposure, dietary factor, or infectious agent was shown to cause DCM1GG. The disease is genetic. Nevertheless, prudent mitochondrial/heart-failure care includes avoiding smoking, binge alcohol, illicit stimulants, unprescribed mitochondrial-toxic drugs, dehydration, prolonged fasting, and delayed treatment of infection. These are risk-management principles, not demonstrated primary prevention of the genotype.
Because the heart has high energy demand and patients have limited complex-II reserve, fever, fasting, hypoglycemia, major surgery, or infection are biologically plausible “second hits.” Evidence remains indirect; no controlled DCM1GG gene–environment study exists.
Human-direct: the decisive biochemical abnormality is tissue-selective complex-II deficiency. Complexes III and IV were largely preserved; one patient had partial complex-I reduction, while normal aconitase argued against a generalized iron–sulfur assembly defect. Why the heart is much more affected than other tissues remains unresolved (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 4-5).
Mouse supporting mechanism: cardiac/muscle Sdhaf4 deletion suppresses SDHA–SDHB assembly, accelerates subunit degradation, increases ROS/protein oxidation, raises succinate, lowers fumarate, activates DRP1-dependent fission/mitophagy, and causes progressive DCM and lethal heart failure. Importantly, metabolic abnormalities precede gross remodeling, supporting complex-II failure as upstream rather than merely a consequence of heart failure. Fumarate supplementation or fission inhibition partially rescued function and survival in mice. The authors’ exact abstract wording was that loss of Sdhaf4 causes “globally impaired metabolic capacity and activation of dynamin-related protein 1, which induces excess mitochondrial fission and mitophagy, thereby causing progressive dilated cardiomyopathy and lethal heart failure in animals” (published July 2022; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31548-1) (wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 1-2, wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 10-12).
Omics: no DCM1GG patient-specific transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, lipidome, single-cell, spatial-transcriptomic, or integrated multi-omic dataset was found. Public human DCM expression data show reduced SDHAF4, but this is general DCM and does not establish the mechanism of SDHA G555E (wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 1-2).
Suggested ontology annotations:
The primary organ is the heart, especially the left ventricular myocardium; both ventricles can be involved under the broader DCM definition. Suggested anatomy terms include UBERON heart (UBERON:0000948), left ventricle (UBERON:0002084), myocardium, interventricular septum, papillary/mitral apparatus, and cardiac muscle tissue. Exact ontology IDs beyond the first two should be release-validated.
At tissue/cell level, ventricular cardiomyocytes are the primary affected population; secondary remodeling may involve cardiac fibroblasts, vascular cells, and inflammatory cells. Subcellular involvement is mitochondrial—matrix-facing catalytic complex II associated with the inner mitochondrial membrane. There is no lateralization; “left” denotes ventricular anatomy, not unilateral disease.
Secondary organ effects arise from low cardiac output and congestion: lungs/respiratory system, liver, kidneys, and systemic circulation may be affected in advanced failure. Neurologic and skeletal-muscle disease were notably absent in the defining isolated-cardiomyopathy cohort, although other biallelic SDHA phenotypes can involve brain and muscle (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3).
Inheritance is autosomal recessive. For two confirmed heterozygous parents, each pregnancy has a 25% probability of an affected biallelic child, 50% of a heterozygous carrier, and 25% of a child inheriting neither familial allele. Expressivity is markedly variable and penetrance is incomplete, demonstrated by one clinically normal homozygous adult (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 4-5, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6).
There is no evidence of anticipation. Germline mosaicism was not reported. Consanguinity was central to the reported pedigrees, and the shared tribal/family context supports a founder effect. Carrier frequency in the tribe and in global populations remains unknown. No reliable sex ratio can be estimated from 15 founder cases; both sexes were affected (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 3-4).
No population prevalence or incidence exists for DCM1GG. Only 15 cases in the defining report were characterized, so any cases-per-100,000 estimate would be misleading. SDH deficiency broadly was described as approximately 2% of mitochondrial respiratory-chain disorders, but that is not the prevalence of DCM1GG (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2).
Geographic/ancestry evidence is limited to the reported consanguineous Bedouin tribe in Israel. The disease should not be characterized as exclusive to this population; rather, this particular founder variant and phenotype were discovered there.
Current cardiomyopathy practice begins with a three-generation pedigree, physical examination, ECG, echocardiography, laboratory evaluation, and exclusion of coronary, hypertensive, valvular, congenital, toxic, infectious, and loading causes sufficient to explain the phenotype. The 2023 ESC definition describes cardiomyopathies as myocardial disorders with structural/functional abnormality absent those alternative causes. The 2024 ESC commentary emphasizes ECG, first-/second-level biomarkers, multimodality imaging, and a genetics pathway (published April 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartjsupp/suae002) (grasso2024thenew2023 pages 1-2).
Recommended tests:
A cardiomyopathy/mitochondrial panel that includes SDHA, or trio exome/genome sequencing with CNV analysis, is appropriate for severe neonatal DCM, especially with consanguinity. If the familial variant is known, targeted testing for c.1664G>A is fastest and least expensive. Confirm in an accredited laboratory with segregation testing. WES/WGS is especially useful for phenotypic expansion, locus heterogeneity, deep intronic/structural variants, or a negative panel. RNA sequencing may resolve splice variants but has no established routine DCM1GG biomarker role.
CMA, karyotyping, and FISH have low expected yield for an isolated known SNV but may be used for syndromic congenital anomalies. mtDNA sequencing can be included in unexplained mitochondrial cardiomyopathy, although SDHA itself is nuclear encoded. Repeat-expansion testing is not relevant unless another phenotype indicates it.
A defensible molecular diagnosis requires (i) DCM phenotype, (ii) biallelic pathogenic/likely pathogenic SDHA variants with appropriate segregation, and (iii) exclusion of stronger alternative causes; complex-II biochemical deficiency strengthens the diagnosis. A VUS alone is insufficient.
Important differentials include viral/immune myocarditis, anomalous coronary origin or ischemia, congenital heart disease, tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy, endocrine/nutritional causes, Barth syndrome (TAZ), mitochondrial translation/OXPHOS defects, fatty-acid oxidation disorders, CoQ deficiency, glycogen/storage disease, and other recessive DCM genes. Leigh syndrome should be evaluated if developmental regression, seizures, hypotonia, movement disorder, or characteristic MRI lesions occur. The founder cohort’s normal neuromuscular examinations and two negative brain MRIs support an isolated cardiac presentation, not exclusion of neurologic SDHA disease in every genotype (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3).
Once a pathogenic familial genotype is established, offer genetic counseling and cascade testing. Biallelic relatives require cardiac evaluation even if asymptomatic because penetrance is variable; heterozygous relatives need reproductive counseling and individualized assessment. Contemporary ESC/AHA guidance strongly supports cascade screening after identification of a pathogenic variant (sorella2025diagnosisandmanagement pages 12-13).
The defining report states exactly that the condition was “marked by high mortality, with two-thirds succumbing to cardiac failure.” Given 15 cases, this corresponds to approximately ten deaths, although follow-up duration varied. Deaths in the table clustered in early infancy, including cardiogenic shock and one sudden death at home. Several children survived to 7–11 years with normal schooling, showing substantial within-genotype variability (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 3-4, levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6).
No reliable 5- or 10-year survival curve, median life expectancy, disability-adjusted life-year estimate, or validated subtype-specific prognostic score exists. Prognosis is likely worse with prenatal onset, severe LV dilation, fractional shortening <10%, recurrent CHF, cardiogenic shock, and failure to improve with therapy, but these have not been formally modeled.
Major complications are chronic/refractory heart failure, pulmonary congestion, mitral regurgitation, arrhythmia/sudden death, thromboembolism in severe ventricular dysfunction, end-organ hypoperfusion, mechanical-support requirement, and transplantation. Quality-of-life morbidity includes repeated hospitalization and exercise limitation; formal patient-reported outcomes are absent.
There is no approved SDHA- or DCM1GG-specific therapy. Treatment follows age-appropriate DCM and heart-failure guidance in a pediatric cardiomyopathy/mitochondrial center:
Suggested NCIt intervention concepts include heart-failure therapy, diuretic therapy, ACE-inhibitor therapy, beta-blocker therapy, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, ventricular assist device, and heart transplantation; exact NCIt codes should be resolved in the current thesaurus.
Riboflavin, coenzyme Q10, carnitine, antioxidants, or other “mitochondrial cocktails” are sometimes used empirically in respiratory-chain disease, but no controlled efficacy evidence exists for SDHA G555E cardiomyopathy. They should not replace heart-failure therapy. No DCM1GG pharmacogenomic dosing rule is established.
Fumarate supplementation and DRP1/mitochondrial-fission inhibition improved function and survival in Sdhaf4-deficient mice, not DCM1GG patients. These findings are hypothesis-generating and do not justify clinical fumarate or fission-inhibitor use outside a protocol (wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 1-2, wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 10-12).
No dedicated DCM1GG clinical trial, approved gene replacement/editing therapy, ASO/siRNA therapy, or cell therapy was identified. ClinicalTrials.gov searches returned SDH-deficient oncology studies and a broad mitochondrial registry, not therapeutic DCM1GG trials; the oncology studies are not applicable to cardiomyopathy.
Primary prevention of the genotype: carrier identification in the founder family/population, genetic counseling, partner testing, preimplantation genetic testing, prenatal diagnosis, and use of donor gametes where desired. There is no vaccine or medication preventing inheritance.
Secondary prevention: cascade testing followed by baseline and longitudinal ECG/echocardiography, with CMR and rhythm monitoring as appropriate. Prenatal/fetal echocardiography is reasonable in at-risk pregnancies because onset occurred as early as 32 weeks (levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 3-4).
Tertiary prevention: early treatment of ventricular dysfunction and congestion; vaccination according to routine schedules; prompt infection management; avoidance of smoking, cardiotoxic exposures, illicit stimulants, excessive alcohol, prolonged fasting/dehydration, and unsupervised intense exercise; and individualized arrhythmic/thromboembolic risk management.
Population-wide newborn screening is not established. Targeted founder/carrier screening may be reasonable only after local validation of variant frequency, analytical performance, counseling infrastructure, and community engagement.
No naturally occurring animal disease specifically caused by the orthologous SDHA Gly555Glu variant was identified. Therefore, no validated breed association, VBO term, veterinary prevalence, zoonotic potential, or cross-species transmission exists. This is a noninfectious inherited disorder and is not zoonotic.
SDHA and complex-II biology are evolutionarily conserved across mammals and other eukaryotes. Comparative relevance lies in conserved succinate oxidation, electron transfer, mitochondrial energetics, and redox regulation—not in a documented naturally occurring veterinary DCM1GG syndrome.
The Sdhaf4 mouse disrupts an assembly factor, not SDHA Gly555Glu, and deletion may be more severe or mechanistically different from a hypomorphic missense allele. No retrieved model reproduced the human tissue-selective penetrance or the unaffected homozygous adult.
High-priority future resources are: (1) CRISPR knock-in Sdha p.Gly555Glu mice; (2) patient-derived iPSC ventricular cardiomyocytes and engineered heart tissues; (3) isogenic corrected controls; (4) stress challenges such as pacing, hypoxia, fever-like temperature, or nutrient limitation; and (5) single-cell/spatial multi-omics to distinguish cardiomyocyte-autonomous failure from fibroblast, vascular, and immune remodeling.
The major 2023–2024 advance relevant to implementation is not a new DCM1GG cohort but the 2023 ESC cardiomyopathy framework, summarized in 2024, which makes advanced imaging, deep phenotyping, and genetics central to family-based care and cautions that LV noncompaction is a morphologic trait rather than necessarily a separate disease (grasso2024thenew2023 pages 1-2). The mechanistic field has advanced through cardiac complex-II models demonstrating that metabolic injury can precede structural DCM and may be partly reversible experimentally, but translation to SDHA G555E patients remains untested (wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 1-2, wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 10-12).
The key knowledge gaps are consequently substantial: modern ClinVar/gnomAD characterization of the founder allele; incidence and carrier frequency; prospective penetrance; long-term survival; arrhythmic risk; patient-derived cardiomyocyte models; direct ATP/redox/metabolomic measurements; modifier discovery; and genotype-directed therapy. Until these are addressed, authoritative interpretation should treat DCM1GG as a well-supported but extremely rare SDHA-associated founder cardiomyopathy whose numerical natural-history estimates are provisional.
References
(OpenTargets Search: Dilated cardiomyopathy-SDHA): Open Targets Query (Dilated cardiomyopathy-SDHA, 5 results). Buniello, A. et al. (2025). Open Targets Platform: facilitating therapeutic hypotheses building in drug discovery. Nucleic Acids Research.
(levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 1-2): Aviva Levitas, Emad Muhammad, Gali Harel, Ann Saada, Vered Chalifa Caspi, Esther Manor, John C Beck, Val Sheffield, and Ruti Parvari. Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase. European Journal of Human Genetics, 18:1160-1165, Jun 2010. URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2010.83, doi:10.1038/ejhg.2010.83. This article has 142 citations and is from a domain leading peer-reviewed journal.
(levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 2-3): Aviva Levitas, Emad Muhammad, Gali Harel, Ann Saada, Vered Chalifa Caspi, Esther Manor, John C Beck, Val Sheffield, and Ruti Parvari. Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase. European Journal of Human Genetics, 18:1160-1165, Jun 2010. URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2010.83, doi:10.1038/ejhg.2010.83. This article has 142 citations and is from a domain leading peer-reviewed journal.
(levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 5-6): Aviva Levitas, Emad Muhammad, Gali Harel, Ann Saada, Vered Chalifa Caspi, Esther Manor, John C Beck, Val Sheffield, and Ruti Parvari. Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase. European Journal of Human Genetics, 18:1160-1165, Jun 2010. URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2010.83, doi:10.1038/ejhg.2010.83. This article has 142 citations and is from a domain leading peer-reviewed journal.
(levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 4-5): Aviva Levitas, Emad Muhammad, Gali Harel, Ann Saada, Vered Chalifa Caspi, Esther Manor, John C Beck, Val Sheffield, and Ruti Parvari. Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase. European Journal of Human Genetics, 18:1160-1165, Jun 2010. URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2010.83, doi:10.1038/ejhg.2010.83. This article has 142 citations and is from a domain leading peer-reviewed journal.
(levitas2010familialneonatalisolated pages 3-4): Aviva Levitas, Emad Muhammad, Gali Harel, Ann Saada, Vered Chalifa Caspi, Esther Manor, John C Beck, Val Sheffield, and Ruti Parvari. Familial neonatal isolated cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase. European Journal of Human Genetics, 18:1160-1165, Jun 2010. URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2010.83, doi:10.1038/ejhg.2010.83. This article has 142 citations and is from a domain leading peer-reviewed journal.
(wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 1-2): Xueqiang Wang, Xing Zhang, Ke Cao, Mengqi Zeng, Xuyang Fu, Adi Zheng, Feng Zhang, Feng Gao, Xuan Zou, Hao Li, Min Li, Weiqiang Lv, Jie Xu, Jiangang Long, Weijin Zang, Jinghai Chen, Feng Gao, Jian Ding, Jiankang Liu, and Zhihui Feng. Cardiac disruption of sdhaf4-mediated mitochondrial complex ii assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy. Nature Communications, Jul 2022. URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31548-1, doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31548-1. This article has 67 citations and is from a highest quality peer-reviewed journal.
(wang2022cardiacdisruptionof pages 10-12): Xueqiang Wang, Xing Zhang, Ke Cao, Mengqi Zeng, Xuyang Fu, Adi Zheng, Feng Zhang, Feng Gao, Xuan Zou, Hao Li, Min Li, Weiqiang Lv, Jie Xu, Jiangang Long, Weijin Zang, Jinghai Chen, Feng Gao, Jian Ding, Jiankang Liu, and Zhihui Feng. Cardiac disruption of sdhaf4-mediated mitochondrial complex ii assembly promotes dilated cardiomyopathy. Nature Communications, Jul 2022. URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31548-1, doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31548-1. This article has 67 citations and is from a highest quality peer-reviewed journal.
(grasso2024thenew2023 pages 1-2): Maurizia Grasso, Davide Bondavalli, Viviana Vilardo, Claudia Cavaliere, Ilaria Gatti, Alessandro Di Toro, Lorenzo Giuliani, Mario Urtis, Michela Ferrari, Barbara Cattadori, Alessandra Serio, Carlo Pellegrini, and Eloisa Arbustini. The new 2023 esc guidelines for the management of cardiomyopathies: a guiding path for cardiologist decisions. European Heart Journal Supplements : Journal of the European Society of Cardiology, 26:i1-i5, Apr 2024. URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartjsupp/suae002, doi:10.1093/eurheartjsupp/suae002. This article has 18 citations.
(sorella2025diagnosisandmanagement pages 12-13): Anna Sorella, Kristian Galanti, Lorena Iezzi, Sabina Gallina, Selma F Mohammed, Neha Sekhri, Mohammed Majid Akhtar, Sanjay K Prasad, Choudhary Anwar Ahmed Chahal, Fabrizio Ricci, and Mohammed Yunus Khanji. Diagnosis and management of dilated cardiomyopathy: a systematic review of clinical practice guidelines and recommendations. European Heart Journal. Quality of Care & Clinical Outcomes, 11:206-222, Dec 2025. URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcae109, doi:10.1093/ehjqcco/qcae109. This article has 45 citations.
Checked with linkml-reference-validator 0.2.1.
| Outcome | Count |
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| References checked | 4 |
| Resolved | 4 |
| Unresolved (possible confabulation) | 0 |
| Unverifiable | 0 |
| Quoted claims checked | 1 |
| Quoted claims found in source | 1 |
| Quoted claims not found in source | 0 |
| Quoted claims with nothing to check against | 1 |
| References weighed for topical relevance | 4 |
| On topic | 3 |
| Off topic | 0 |
There was no text to compare these against, so they are neither confirmed nor contradicted:
DOI:10.1038/ejhg.2010.83: "extreme phenotypic variability"All extracted references resolved successfully.
Checked with linkml-term-validator 0.4.5, through the ols: adapter.
| Outcome | Count |
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| Terms checked | 13 |
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| Unresolved (possible confabulation) | 0 |
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| Terms whose name was checked | 2 |
| Terms named correctly | 0 |
| Terms named as a different term | 1 |
| Terms whose name is worth a second look | 1 |
These identifiers resolve, so nothing about them looks wrong, and the ontology calls them something unrelated to what the report calls them. That usually means the identifier is not the one the sentence needs:
MONDO:0013339 (2 mentions) - the report calls it "if available"; MONDO calls it dilated cardiomyopathy 1GGThe report's name for these is recognisably related to the term's own name without being one of them. A loose paraphrase reads the same way as a citation of the wrong sibling term - and so does a related synonym, which the ontology records precisely because it names something adjacent rather than the same thing - so these are listed rather than judged:
CL:0000746 (1 mention) - the report calls it "Cell Ontology: cardiomyocyte"; CL calls it cardiac muscle cell**, and lists "cardiomyocyte" among its other names