Background— Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a leading cause of death during the first 6 months after birth. About 5% to 10% of SIDS may stem from cardiac channelopathies such as long-QT syndrome. We recently implicated mutations in α1-syntrophin (SNTA1) as a novel cause of long-QT syndrome, whereby mutant SNTA1 released inhibition of associated neuronal nitric oxide synthase by the plasma membrane Ca-ATPase PMCA4b, causing increased peak and late sodium current (I_Na) via S-nitrosylation of the cardiac sodium channel. This study determined the prevalence and functional properties of SIDS-associated SNTA1 mutations.

Methods and Results— Using polymerase chain reaction, denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography, and DNA sequencing of SNTA1’s open reading frame, 6 rare (absent in 800 reference alleles) missense mutations (G54R, P56S, T262P, S287R, T372M, and G460S) were identified in 8 (≈3%) of 292 SIDS cases. These mutations were engineered using polymerase chain reaction–based overlap extension and were coexpressed heterologously with SCN5A, neuronal nitric oxide synthase, and PMCA4b in HEK293 cells. I_Na was recorded using the whole-cell method. A significant 1.4- to 1.5-fold increase in peak I_Na and 2.3- to 2.7-fold increase in late I_Na compared with controls was evident for S287R-, T372M-, and G460S-SNTA1 and was reversed by a neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibitor. These 3 mutations also caused a significant depolarizing shift in channel inactivation, thereby increasing the overlap of the activation and inactivation curves to increase window current.

Conclusions— Abnormal biophysical phenotypes implicate mutations in SNTA1 as a novel pathogenic mechanism for the subset of channelopathic SIDS. Functional studies are essential to distinguish pathogenic perturbations in channel interacting proteins such as α1-syntrophin from similarly rare but innocuous ones.