Comparative screening of FMF mutations in various communities of the Israeli society

Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disease that is widely spread in the populations of the Mediterranean region. It is characterized by recurrent fever and inflammatory attacks. A total of 1700 suspected patients, belonging to various communities in Israel: Jews (Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi), Arabs (Muslims and Christians) and Druze, was subjected to examination for FMF mutation screening. The patients were screened for the most common six MEFV gene mutations namely, M680I, M694V, M694I, V726A, E148Q and K695R. Fifty-five percent of the cases were confirmed to have MEFV mutations. The most common mutations among all the cases studied were M694V, E148Q and V726A. The common mutations in the respective communities were: among the Jews M694V with a frequency of 69.9% (76.8% for non-Ashkenazi Jews and 43.6% for Ashkenazi Jews), among the Arabs V726A with a frequency of 32.7% (32.7% for Muslims and 32.1% for Christians) and among Druze it was E148Q with a frequency of 52.1%. The characteristic mutation present in Jews was K695R and the one in Arabs was M680I, while no characteristic mutation was found in Druze. On the other hand, mutation E148Q was observed to have a considerable occurrence in patients of all ethnic groups studied. Furthermore, our results revealed that homozygous mutations accounted for 168 cases (18%). The homozygote mutation M694V was the most prevalent among Jews and the E148Q mutation was the most common among Druze, while, among Arabs there were three homozygous mutations having maximum prevalence, namely, V726A, M694V and M694I. Our study comprehensively provided a spectrum of FMF mutations in various communities of Israeli society.