Case Report: Senior-Loken syndrome: A novel NPHP5 gene mutation in a family from Kuwait

Background: Rare autosomal recessive disorders of variable severity are segregating in many highly consanguineous families from the Arab population. One of these deleterious diseases is Senior-Loken syndrome, a hereditary heterogeneous multiorgan disorder, which combines nephronophthisis with retinal dystrophy, leading to blindness and eventually end stage renal failure. This disorder has been reported in many cases worldwide, including two unrelated families from Arabian Gulf countries, which share the gene pool with Kuwait.Case report: Here, we are reporting two children from an Arab family with a novel frameshift mutation found in IQCB1/NPHP5 gene; c.1241-1242delTC, predicted to cause protein termination p.Leu414HisfsStop4, and describing the associated clinical features.Conclusion: Identification of this pathogenic mutation helped in confirmation of the clinical diagnosis and in providing a proper pre-marital genetic counselling and testing for a couple embarking on marriage from this highly consanguineous high-risk family.Keywords: Arab; Ciliopathy; Consanguinity; Nephronophthisis; Senior-Loken syndrome; Premarital counsellin

Baraitser–Winter syndrome: An additional Arab patient

An Arab child is presented herein with a phenotype that fits the rare Baraitser–Winter syndrome. Her clinical features included a unilateral iris coloboma, ptosis, hypertelorism, epicanthic folds, broad nasal bridge, full cheeks, pointed chin, low set abnormal ears and short neck. In addition, she had cardiac defect, previously undescribed brain anomaly, seizures, hypotoniaand developmental delay. Chromosomal analysis of the peripheral lymphocytes and FISH study revealed a normal 46, XX karyotype. To date, Baraitser–Winter syndrome has only been reported in 19 patients of different ethnic families. The present case adds a new finding to the spectrum ofmalformations published before

Case Report: Primary ciliary dyskinesia: Kartagener syndrome in a family with a novel DNAH5 gene mutation and variable phenotypes

Background: Primary ciliary dyskinesia is a genetically heterogeneous autosomal recessive disorder with variable clinical manifestations, including chronic rhinosinusitis, otitis media, bronchitis, pneumonia, bronchiectasis, situs inversus totalis, reduced fertility in female patients and male infertility. The condition occurs as a result of abnormal ciliary structure and function. It is presented in early life with an estimated incidence of approximately 1/16,000–20,000. About 50% of the affected patients have situs inversus totalis leading to Kartagener syndrome (MIM: 244400). So far more than 19 causative genes have been associated with primary ciliary dyskinesia.Case report: Here we are presenting Kartagener syndrome in a consanguineous Kuwaiti family with a novel pathogenic DNAH5 gene mutation; namely c.9864dupA; [p.Pro3289ThrfsStop52], which is predicted to result in protein truncation. In this family several homozygous individuals showed variable disease manifestations.Conclusion: Molecular test helped in confirmation of the clinical diagnosis and in providing better management of the affected family members, which in turn could significantly improve overall quality of their life. Consequently, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which is the most acceptable procedure in the Islamic countries, was offered to the heterozygous-carrier couple in order to prevent recurrence of the disease in their future generations.Keywords: Arab; Consanguinity; DNAH5; Kartagener syndrome; Preimplantation genetic diagnosis; Primary ciliary dyskinesi

Partial duplication of chromosome 8p: Report of 5 patients and review of literature

The partial chromosome 8p duplication is a rare syndrome and is associated with a characteristic phenotype, including multiple congenital anomalies and mental retardation of various degrees. However, different outcomes depend on the size and location of the duplicated area. We present clinical and cytogenetic data of 5 Arab patients with de novo inversion duplication of 8p. This report provides additional cases to the growing literature. Keywords: Chromosome duplication, multiple congenital anomalies, mental retardation, phenotype Egypt. J. Hum. Genet Vol. 8 (2) 2007: pp. 199-20

Applicability of non-invasively collected matrices for human biomonitoring

With its inclusion under Action 3 in the Environment and Health Action Plan 2004–2010 of the European Commission, human biomonitoring is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention from the scientific community as a tool to better quantify human exposure to, and health effects of, environmental stressors. Despite the policy support, however, there are still several issues that restrict the routine application of human biomonitoring data in environmental health impact assessment. One of the main issues is the obvious need to routinely collect human samples for large-scale surveys. Particularly the collection of invasive samples from susceptible populations may suffer from ethical and practical limitations. Children, pregnant women, elderly, or chronically-ill people are among those that would benefit the most from non-invasive, repeated or routine sampling. Therefore, the use of non-invasively collected matrices for human biomonitoring should be promoted as an ethically appropriate, cost-efficient and toxicologically relevant alternative for many biomarkers that are currently determined in invasively collected matrices. This review illustrates that several non-invasively collected matrices are widely used that can be an valuable addition to, or alternative for, invasively collected matrices such as peripheral blood sampling. Moreover, a well-informed choice of matrix can provide an added value for human biomonitoring, as different non-invasively collected matrices can offer opportunities to study additional aspects of exposure to and effects from environmental contaminants, such as repeated sampling, historical overview of exposure, mother-child transfer of substances, or monitoring of substances with short biological half-lives

Recommendations for Genetic Variation Data Capture in Developing Countries to Ensure a Comprehensive Worldwide Data Collection

Developing countries have significantly contributed to the elucidation of the genetic basis of both common and rare disorders, providing an invaluable resource of cases due to large family sizes, consanguinity, and potential founder effects. Moreover, the recognized depth of genomic variation in indigenous African populations, reflecting the ancient origins of humanity on the African continent, and the effect of selection pressures on the genome, will be valuable in understanding the range of both pathological and nonpathological variations. The involvement of these populations in accurately documenting the extant genetic heterogeneity is more than essential. Developing nations are regarded as key contributors to the Human Variome Project (HVP; http://www.humanvariomeproject.org), a major effort to systematically collect mutations that contribute to or cause human disease and create a cyber infrastructure to tie databases together. However, biomedical research has not been the primary focus in these countries even though such activities are likely to produce economic and health benefits for all. Here, we propose several recommendations and guidelines to facilitate participation of developing countries in genetic variation data documentation, ensuring an accurate and comprehensive worldwide data collection. We also summarize a few well-coordinated genetic data collection initiatives that would serve as paradigms for similar projects

De novo and recessive forms of congenital heart disease have distinct genetic and phenotypic landscapes.

The genetic architecture of sporadic congenital heart disease (CHD) is characterized by enrichment in damaging de novo variants in chromatin-modifying genes. To test the hypothesis that gene pathways contributing to de novo forms of CHD are distinct from those for recessive forms, we analyze 2391 whole-exome trios from the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium. We deploy a permutation-based gene-burden analysis to identify damaging recessive and compound heterozygous genotypes and disease genes, controlling for confounding effects, such as background mutation rate and ancestry. Cilia-related genes are significantly enriched for damaging rare recessive genotypes, but comparatively depleted for de novo variants. The opposite trend is observed for chromatin-modifying genes. Other cardiac developmental gene classes have less stratification by mode of inheritance than cilia and chromatin-modifying gene classes. Our analyses reveal dominant and recessive CHD are associated with distinct gene functions, with cilia-related genes providing a reservoir of rare segregating variation leading to CHD