Abstract
Brugada syndrome (BrS) is a complexly genetically patterned, rare, malignant, life-threatening arrhythmia disorder. It is autosomal dominant in most cases and characterized by identifiable electrocardiographic patterns, recurrent syncope, nocturnal agonal respiration, and other symptoms, including sudden cardiac death. Over the last 2 decades, a great number of variants have been identified in more than 36 pathogenic or susceptibility genes associated with BrS. The present study used the combined method of whole exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing to identify pathogenic variants in two unrelated Han-Chinese patients with clinically suspected BrS. Minigene splicing assay was used to evaluate the effects of the splicing variant. A novel heterozygous splicing variant c.2437-2A>C in the sodium voltage-gated channel alpha subunit 5 gene (SCN5A) and a novel heterozygous missense variant c.161A>T [p.(Asp54Val)] in the glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1 like gene (GPD1L) were identified in these two patients with BrS-1 and possible BrS-2, respectively. Minigene splicing assay indicated the deletion of 15 and 141 nucleotides in exon 16, resulting in critical amino acid deletions. These findings expand the variant spectrum of SCN5A and GPD1L, which can be beneficial to genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis.