@article {731, title = {De novo small deletion affecting transcription start site of short isoform of AUTS2 gene in a patient with syndromic neurodevelopmental defects.}, journal = {Am J Med Genet A}, volume = {185}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 03}, pages = {877-883}, abstract = {

Disruption of the autism susceptibility candidate 2 (AUTS2) gene through genomic rearrangements, copy number variations (CNVs), and intragenic deletions and mutations, has been recurrently involved in syndromic forms of developmental delay and intellectual disability, known as AUTS2 syndrome. The AUTS2 gene plays an important role in regulation of neuronal migration, and when altered, associates with a variable phenotype from severely to mildly affected patients. The more severe phenotypes significantly correlate with the presence of defects affecting the C-terminus part of the gene. This article reports a new patient with a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder, who presents a deletion of 30 nucleotides in the exon 9 of the AUTS2 gene. Importantly, this deletion includes the transcription start site for the AUTS2 short transcript isoform, which has an important role in brain development. Gene expression analysis of AUTS2 full-length and short isoforms revealed that the deletion found in this patient causes a remarkable reduction in the expression level, not only of the short isoform, but also of the full AUTS2 transcripts. This report adds more evidence for the role of mutated AUTS2 short transcripts in the development of a severe phenotype in the AUTS2 syndrome.

}, keywords = {Child, Preschool, Cytoskeletal Proteins, Dwarfism, Exons, Gene Expression Regulation, Genetic Association Studies, Humans, Male, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Protein Isoforms, RNA, Messenger, Sequence Deletion, Syndrome, Transcription Factors, Transcription Initiation Site, Transcription, Genetic}, issn = {1552-4833}, doi = {10.1002/ajmg.a.62017}, author = {Martinez-Delgado, Beatriz and Lopez-Martin, Estrella and Lara-Herguedas, Juli{\'a}n and Monzon, Sara and Cuesta, Isabel and Juli{\'a}, Miguel and Aquino, Virginia and Rodriguez-Martin, Carlos and Damian, Alejandra and Gonzalo, Irene and Gomez-Mariano, Gema and Baladron, Beatriz and Cazorla, Rosario and Iglesias, Gema and Roman, Enriqueta and Ros, Purificacion and Tutor, Pablo and Mellor, Susana and Jimenez, Carlos and Cabrejas, Maria Jose and Gonzalez-Vioque, Emiliano and Alonso, Javier and Bermejo-S{\'a}nchez, Eva and Posada, Manuel} } @article {611, title = {Association of a single nucleotide polymorphism in the ubxn6 gene with long-term non-progression phenotype in HIV-positive individuals.}, journal = {Clin Microbiol Infect}, volume = {26}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Jan}, pages = {107-114}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: The long-term non-progressors (LTNPs) are a heterogeneous group of HIV-positive individuals characterized by their ability to maintain high CD4 T-cell counts and partially control viral replication for years in the absence of antiretroviral therapy. The present study aims to identify host single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with non-progression in a cohort of 352 individuals.

METHODS: DNA microarrays and exome sequencing were used for genotyping about 240~000 functional polymorphisms throughout more than 20~000 human genes. The allele frequencies of 85 LTNPs were compared with a control population. SNPs associated with LTNPs were confirmed in a population of typical progressors. Functional analyses in the affected gene were carried out through knockdown experiments in HeLa-P4, macrophages and dendritic cells.

RESULTS: Several SNPs located within the major histocompatibility complex region previously related to LTNPs were confirmed in this new cohort. The SNP rs1127888 (UBXN6) surpassed the statistical significance of these markers after Bonferroni correction (q~=~2.11~{\texttimes}~10). An uncommon allelic frequency of rs1127888 among LTNPs was confirmed by comparison with typical progressors and other publicly available populations. UBXN6 knockdown experiments caused an increase in CAV1 expression and its accumulation in the plasma membrane. In~vitro infection of different cell types with HIV-1 replication-competent recombinant viruses caused a reduction of the viral replication capacity compared with their corresponding wild-type cells expressing UBXN6.

CONCLUSIONS: A higher prevalence of Ala31Thr in UBXN6 was found among LTNPs within its N-terminal region, which is crucial for UBXN6/VCP protein complex formation. UBXN6 knockdown affected CAV1 turnover and HIV-1 replication capacity.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Vesicular Transport, Autophagy-Related Proteins, Caveolin 1, Cohort Studies, Dendritic Cells, Disease Progression, Gene Frequency, Gene Knockdown Techniques, Genetic Association Studies, HeLa Cells, HIV Infections, HIV Long-Term Survivors, HIV-1, Humans, Macrophages, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, whole exome sequencing}, issn = {1469-0691}, doi = {10.1016/j.cmi.2019.05.015}, author = {D{\'\i}ez-Fuertes, F and De La Torre-Tarazona, H E and Calonge, E and Pernas, M and Bermejo, M and Garc{\'\i}a-P{\'e}rez, J and {\'A}lvarez, A and Capa, L and Garc{\'\i}a-Garc{\'\i}a, F and Saumoy, M and Riera, M and Boland-Auge, A and L{\'o}pez-Gal{\'\i}ndez, C and Lathrop, M and Dopazo, J and Sakuntabhai, A and Alcam{\'\i}, J} } @article {407, title = {The modular network structure of the mutational landscape of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {13}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {e0202926}, abstract = {

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is associated with the sequential accumulation of acquired genetic alterations. Although at diagnosis cytogenetic alterations are frequent in AML, roughly 50\% of patients present an apparently normal karyotype (NK), leading to a highly heterogeneous prognosis. Due to this significant heterogeneity, it has been suggested that different molecular mechanisms may trigger the disease with diverse prognostic implications. We performed whole-exome sequencing (WES) of tumor-normal matched samples of de novo AML-NK patients lacking mutations in NPM1, CEBPA or FLT3-ITD to identify new gene mutations with potential prognostic and therapeutic relevance to patients with AML. Novel candidate-genes, together with others previously described, were targeted resequenced in an independent cohort of 100 de novo AML patients classified in the cytogenetic intermediate-risk (IR) category. A mean of 4.89 mutations per sample were detected in 73 genes, 35 of which were mutated in more than one patient. After a network enrichment analysis, we defined a single in silico model and established a set of seed-genes that may trigger leukemogenesis in patients with normal karyotype. The high heterogeneity of gene mutations observed in AML patients suggested that a specific alteration could not be as essential as the interaction of deregulated pathways.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cytodiagnosis, Exome Sequencing, Female, Gene Regulatory Networks, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Heterogeneity, Humans, Karyotype, Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute, Male, Middle Aged, mutation, Neoplasm Proteins, Nucleophosmin, Prognosis}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0202926}, author = {Ib{\'a}{\~n}ez, Mariam and Carbonell-Caballero, Jos{\'e} and Such, Esperanza and Garc{\'\i}a-Alonso, Luz and Liquori, Alessandro and L{\'o}pez-Pav{\'\i}a, Mar{\'\i}a and LLop, Marta and Alonso, Carmen and Barrag{\'a}n, Eva and G{\'o}mez-Segu{\'\i}, In{\'e}s and Neef, Alexander and Herv{\'a}s, David and Montesinos, Pau and Sanz, Guillermo and Sanz, Miguel Angel and Dopazo, Joaquin and Cervera, Jos{\'e}} } @article {452, title = {Improving the management of Inherited Retinal Dystrophies by targeted sequencing of a population-specific gene panel.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {6}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Apr 01}, pages = {23910}, abstract = {

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has overcome important limitations to the molecular diagnosis of Inherited Retinal Dystrophies (IRD) such as the high clinical and genetic heterogeneity and the overlapping phenotypes. The purpose of this study was the identification of the genetic defect in 32 Spanish families with different forms of IRD. With that aim, we implemented a custom NGS panel comprising 64 IRD-associated genes in our population, and three disease-associated intronic regions. A total of 37 pathogenic mutations (14 novels) were found in 73\% of IRD patients ranging from 50\% for autosomal dominant cases, 75\% for syndromic cases, 83\% for autosomal recessive cases, and 100\% for X-linked cases. Additionally, unexpected phenotype-genotype correlations were found in 6 probands, which led to the refinement of their clinical diagnoses. Furthermore, intra- and interfamilial phenotypic variability was observed in two cases. Moreover, two cases unsuccessfully analysed by exome sequencing were resolved by applying this panel. Our results demonstrate that this hypothesis-free approach based on frequently mutated, population-specific loci is highly cost-efficient for the routine diagnosis of this heterogeneous condition and allows the unbiased analysis of a miscellaneous cohort. The molecular information found here has aid clinical diagnosis and has improved genetic counselling and patient management.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Computer Simulation, DNA Copy Number Variations, DNA Mutational Analysis, Eye Proteins, Gene Library, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Heterogeneity, Genetic Therapy, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Humans, mutation, Phenotype, Retinal Dystrophies}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/srep23910}, author = {Bravo-Gil, Nereida and M{\'e}ndez-Vidal, Cristina and Romero-P{\'e}rez, Laura and Gonz{\'a}lez-del Pozo, Mar{\'\i}a and Rodr{\'\i}guez-de la R{\'u}a, Enrique and Dopazo, Joaquin and Borrego, Salud and Anti{\v n}olo, Guillermo} } @article {490, title = {Novel RP1 mutations and a recurrent BBS1 variant explain the co-existence of two distinct retinal phenotypes in the same pedigree.}, journal = {BMC Genet}, volume = {15}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Dec 14}, pages = {143}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Molecular diagnosis of Inherited Retinal Dystrophies (IRD) has long been challenging due to the extensive clinical and genetic heterogeneity present in this group of disorders. Here, we describe the clinical application of an integrated next-generation sequencing approach to determine the underlying genetic defects in a Spanish family with a provisional clinical diagnosis of autosomal recessive Retinitis Pigmentosa (arRP).

RESULTS: Exome sequencing of the index patient resulted in the identification of the homozygous BBS1 p.M390R mutation. Sanger sequencing of additional members of the family showed lack of co-segregation of the p.M390R variant in some individuals. Clinical reanalysis indicated co-ocurrence of two different phenotypes in the same family: Bardet-Biedl syndrome in the individual harboring the BBS1 mutation and non-syndromic arRP in extended family members. To identify possible causative mutations underlying arRP, we conducted disease-targeted gene sequencing using a panel of 26 IRD genes. The in-house custom panel was validated using 18 DNA samples known to harbor mutations in relevant genes. All variants were redetected, indicating a high mutation detection rate. This approach allowed the identification of two novel heterozygous null mutations in RP1 (c.4582_4585delATCA; p.I1528Vfs*10 and c.5962dupA; p.I1988Nfs*3) which co-segregated with the disease in arRP patients. Additionally, a mutational screening in 96 patients of our cohort with genetically unresolved IRD revealed the presence of the c.5962dupA mutation in one unrelated family.

CONCLUSIONS: The combination of molecular findings for RP1 and BBS1 genes through exome and gene panel sequencing enabled us to explain the co-existence of two different retinal phenotypes in a family. The identification of two novel variants in RP1 suggests that the use of panels containing the prevalent genes of a particular population, together with an optimized data analysis pipeline, is an efficient and cost-effective approach that can be reliably implemented into the routine diagnostic process of diverse inherited retinal disorders. Moreover, the identification of these novel variants in two unrelated families supports the relatively high prevalence of RP1 mutations in Spanish population and the role of private mutations for commonly mutated genes, while extending the mutational spectrum of RP1.

}, keywords = {Bardet-Biedl Syndrome, Base Sequence, Case-Control Studies, DNA Mutational Analysis, Eye Proteins, Genes, Recessive, Genetic Association Studies, Humans, Microsatellite Repeats, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Mutation, Missense, Pedigree, Phenotype, Retina, Retinitis pigmentosa}, issn = {1471-2156}, doi = {10.1186/s12863-014-0143-2}, author = {M{\'e}ndez-Vidal, Cristina and Bravo-Gil, Nereida and Gonz{\'a}lez-del Pozo, Mar{\'\i}a and Vela-Boza, Alicia and Dopazo, Joaquin and Borrego, Salud and Anti{\v n}olo, Guillermo} }