0000000000471734
AUTHOR
Marco Seri
Exploring by whole exome sequencing patients with initial diagnosis of Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome: the interconnections of epigenetic machinery disorders.
Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome (RSTS) is an autosomal-dominant neurodevelopmental disease affecting 1:125,000 newborns characterized by intellectual disability, growth retardation, facial dysmorphisms and skeletal abnormalities. RSTS is caused by mutations in genes encoding for writers of the epigenetic machinery: CREBBP (~ 60%) or its homologous EP300 (~ 10%). No causative mutation is identified in up to 30% of patients. We performed whole-exome sequencing (WES) on eight RSTS-like individuals who had normal high-resolution array CGH testing and were CREBBP- and EP300-mutation -negative, to identify the molecular cause. In four cases, we identified putatively causal variants in three genes (ASXL…
Exclusion of the Sonic Hedgehog gene as responsible for Currarino syndrome and anorectal malformations with sacral hypodevelopment.
Anorectal malformations (ARMs) are common congenital anomalies that account for 1:4 digestive malformations. ARM patients show different degrees of sacral hypodevelopment while the hemisacrum is characteristic of the Currarino syndrome (CS). Cases of CS present an association of ARM, hemisacrum and presacral mass. A gene responsible for CS has recently been mapped in 7q36. Among the genes localized in this critical region, sonic hedgehog (SHH) was thought to represent a candidate gene for CS as well as for ARM with different levels of sacral hypodevelopment according to its role in the differentiation of midline mesoderm. By linkage analysis we confirmed the critical region in one large fam…
Identifying gene-environment interactions in schizophrenia: contemporary challenges for integrated, large-scale investigations
European Community Recent years have seen considerable progress in epidemiological and molecular genetic research into environmental and genetic factors in schizophrenia, but methodological uncertainties remain with regard to validating environmental exposures, and the population risk conferred by individual molecular genetic variants is small. There are now also a limited number of studies that have investigated molecular genetic candidate gene-environment interactions (G x E), however, so far, thorough replication of findings is rare and G x E research still faces several conceptual and methodological challenges. in this article, we aim to review these recent developments and illustrate h…
The continuity of effect of schizophrenia polygenic risk score and patterns of cannabis use on transdiagnostic symptom dimensions at first-episode psychosis: findings from the EU-GEI study
The work was supported by Guarantors of Brain post-doctoral clinical fellowship to DQ; Clinician Scientist Medical Research Council fellowship (project reference MR/M008436/1) to MDF; Heisenberg professorship from the German Research Founda- tion (grant no. 389624707) to UR; the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The EU-GEI Project is funded by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement No. HEALTH-F2-…