The Lantern Project is an ongoing complimentary diagnostic program for patients in the United States sponsored by Sanofi and implemented by PerkinElmer Genomics. It combines specific enzymatic,
biomarker, and genetic testing to facilitate rapid, accurate laboratory diagnosis of
Pompe disease and several other
lysosomal storage diseases, and a multigene next-generation sequencing panel including
Pompe disease, LGMD, and other neuromuscular disorders. This article reports data for
Pompe disease collected from October 2018 through December 2021, including
acid α-
glucosidase (GAA)
enzyme assay and GAA sequencing (standard or expedited for positive newborn screening [NBS] to rule out infantile-onset
Pompe disease [IOPD]) and the Focused Neuromuscular Panel, which includes GAA. One hundred forty patients (12 received only GAA
enzyme testing, 128 had GAA sequencing alone or in addition to
enzyme assay) have been confirmed with
Pompe disease in this project. Eight of the 140 had a variant of unknown significance, but GAA activity ≤2.10 μmol/L/h, thus were confirmed with
Pompe disease. Three diagnosed patients 0-2 years old had cross-reactive immunologic material (CRIM)-negative GAA variants and thus IOPD. One additional infant with presumptive IOPD had a homozygous frameshift c.1846del, likely CRIM-negative; symptoms were not provided. Among the 128 patients with molecular results, the c.-32-13T>G splice variant was homozygous in 11, compound-heterozygous in 98, and absent in 19. Proximal
muscle weakness (58 patients) was the most common sign reported at testing; elevated
creatine kinase (29 patients) was the most common laboratory result. The most common symptom categories were muscular (73 patients), musculoskeletal (13 patients), and respiratory (23 patients). Clinical information was not available for 42 samples, and 17 infants had only "abnormal NBS" or "low GAA" reported. Cardiac symptoms in 7 included potentially age-related conditions in five c.-32-13T>G-compound-heterozygous adults (
myocardial infarction,
heart murmur/palpitations,
congestive heart failure: 1 each; 2 with
atrial fibrillation) and
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 2 children (1 and 2 years old) with presumptive IOPD. One novel GAA variant was observed in a patient with
enzyme activity 0.31 μmol/L/h: c.1853_1854ins49, a frameshift pathogenic variant. The Lantern Project demonstrates the combinatorial utility of
enzyme assay, targeted single-gene testing, and a focused neuromuscular next-generation sequencing panel in diagnosing
Pompe disease.