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Background

Anorexia nervosa is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder presenting with life-threatening low body weight, and a persistent fear of gaining weight. To date, no whole exome sequencing was performed in male individuals with anorexia nervosa.

Aim and Methods

Here, we performed an exome analysis in two independent families with male individuals with anorexia nervosa and found variants in the Neuronatin (NNAT) gene in both probands. To confirm our data, we carried out the screening of the NNAT gene in a cohort of 8 male and 144 female individuals with anorexia nervosa.

Results

Exome sequencing revealed a nonsense variant p. Trp33* in NNAT in one patient and a rare variant in the 5′ UTR region of NNAT in the other patient. Screening of the NNAT gene in a cohort of 8 male and 144 female individuals with anorexia nervosa allowed to identify 11 other NNAT variants showing that 40.00% and …