TOR1A variants cause a severe arthrogryposis with developmental delay, strabismus and tremor.

See Ginevrino and Valente (doi:10.1093/brain/awx260) for a scientific commentary on this article. Autosomal dominant torsion dystonia-1 is a disease with incomplete penetrance most often caused by an in-frame GAG deletion (p.Glu303del) in the endoplasmic reticulum luminal protein torsinA encoded by TOR1A. We report an association of the homozygous dominant disease-causing TOR1A p.Glu303del mutation, and a novel homozygous missense variant (p.Gly318Ser) with a severe arthrogryposis phenotype with developmental delay, strabismus and tremor in three unrelated Iranian families. All parents who were carriers of the TOR1A variant showed no evidence of neurological symptoms or signs, indicating decreased penetrance similar to families with autosomal dominant torsion dystonia-1. The results from cell assays demonstrate that the p.Gly318Ser substitution causes a redistribution of torsinA from the endoplasmic reticulum to the nuclear envelope, similar to the hallmark of the p.Glu303del mutation. Our study highlights that TOR1A mutations should be considered in patients with severe arthrogryposis and further expands the phenotypic spectrum associated with TOR1A mutations.

Discriminative Features in Three Autosomal Recessive Cutis Laxa Syndromes: Cutis Laxa IIA, Cutis Laxa IIB, and Geroderma Osteoplastica.

Cutis laxa is a heterogeneous condition characterized by redundant, sagging, inelastic, and wrinkled skin. The inherited forms of this disease are rare and can have autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, or X-linked inheritance. Three of the autosomal recessive cutis laxa syndromes, namely cutis laxa IIA (ARCL2A), cutis laxa IIB (ARCL2B), and geroderma osteodysplastica (GO), have very similar clinical features, complicating accurate diagnosis. Individuals with these conditions often present with cutis laxa, progeroid features, and hyperextensible joints. These conditions also share additional features, such as short stature, hypotonia, and congenital hip dislocation, but the severity and frequency of these findings are variable in each of these cutis laxa syndromes. The characteristic features for ARCL2A are abnormal isoelectric focusing and facial features, including downslanting palpebral fissures and a long philtrum. Rather, the clinical phenotype of ARCL2B includes severe wrinkling of the dorsum of the hands and feet, wormian bones, athetoid movements, lipodystrophy, cataract and corneal clouding, a thin triangular face, and a pinched nose. Normal cognition and osteopenia leading to pathological fractures, maxillary hypoplasia, and oblique furrowing from the outer canthus to the lateral border of the supraorbital ridge are discriminative features for GO. Here we present 10 Iranian patients who were initially diagnosed clinically using the respective features of each cutis laxa syndrome. Each patient's clinical diagnosis was then confirmed with molecular investigation of the responsible gene. Review of the clinical features from the cases reported from the literature also supports our conclusions.

Clinical application of next generation sequencing for Mendelian disease diagnosis in the Iranian population.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been proven to be one of the most powerful diagnostic tools for rare Mendelian disorders. Several studies on the clinical application of NGS in unselected cohorts of Middle Eastern patients have reported a high diagnostic yield of up to 48%, correlated with a high level of consanguinity in these populations. We evaluated the diagnostic utility of NGS-based testing across different clinical indications in 1436 patients from Iran, representing the first study of its kind in this highly consanguineous population. A total of 1075 exome sequencing and 361 targeted gene panel sequencing were performed over 8 years at a single clinical genetics laboratory, with the majority of cases tested as proband-only (91.6%). The overall diagnostic rate was 46.7%, ranging from 24% in patients with an abnormality of prenatal development to over 67% in patients with an abnormality of the skin. We identified 660 pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants, including 241 novel variants, associated with over 342 known genetic conditions. The highly consanguineous nature of this cohort led to the diagnosis of autosomal recessive disorders in the majority of patients (79.1%) and allowed us to determine the shared carrier status of couples for suspected recessive phenotypes in their deceased child(ren) when direct testing was not possible. We also highlight the observations of recessive inheritance of genes previously associated only with dominant disorders and provide an expanded genotype-phenotype spectrum for multiple less-characterized genes. We present the largest mutational spectrum of known Mendelian disease, including possible founder variants, throughout the Iranian population, which can serve as a unique resource for clinical genomic studies locally and beyond.

Craniosynostosis in a patient with 2q37.3 deletion 5q34 duplication: association of extra copy of MSX2 with craniosynostosis.

We report on a 1-year-old boy with craniosynostosis, microcephaly, developmental delay and dysmorphic features. Chromosomal studies of the proband showed 46,XY,add(2)(q37)dn and those of the parents were normal. The rearranged material in the patient was further defined using array comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH), which revealed loss of 2Mb distal to 2q37.3 and duplication of 15Mb from 5q34 --> qter. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) studies using subtelomeric 2q and 5q probes showed the 2q deletion and 5q duplication resulting from a rearrangement of the segment from 5q onto the long arm of chromosome 2. FISH studies of the parents did not show any rearrangement. Recently it has been proposed that an extra copy of MSX2 that maps to 5q35.2 causes premature synostosis of the sutures via the MSX2-mediated pathway of calvarial osteogenic differentiation. Our case further supports the role of MSX2 duplication in the etiology of craniosynostosis.

Elucidating the spectrum of alpha-thalassemia mutations in Iran.

Alpha thalassemia (alpha-thal) is one of the most common hemoglobin (Hb) disorders in the world. Alpha-globin genes are located on chromosome 16. The majority of alpha-thal mutations are deletions but point mutations are found as well. Since the Iranian population is a mixture of different ethnic groups, frequency and distribution of alpha-globin mutations in various regions of the country need to be clarified. These findings can contribute to a wider understanding of this disorder.

Prenatal Screening for Aneuploidies Using QF-PCR and Karyotyping: A Comprehensive Study in Iranian Population.

BACKGROUND: We have investigated the efficacy of QF-PCR for the prenatal recognition of common aneuploidy and compared our findings with cytogenetic results in our laboratories. METHODS: A total of 4058 prenatal samples (4031 amniotic fluid and 27 chorionic villous samples) were analyzed by QF-PCR using several selected STR markers together with amelogenin. Results were compared to those obtained by conventional cytogenetic analysis. RESULTS: We detected 139 (3.42%) numerical abnormalities in our subjects by QF-PCR. Concordant QF-PCR and karyotype results were obtained in 4001 (98.59%) of the samples. An abnormal karyotype associated with adverse clinical outcome undetected by QF-PCR was found in 16.66% (n = 28) of samples. Using QF-PCR alone, we were able to detect abnormalities in 98.59% of all referred families; however the karyotyping results improved the detection rate to 99.85% of the referred cases. Individuals with neonatal screening result with 1:10 risk ratio showed 11.29% abnormal karyotype while this number was 2.16% in mothers with risk ratio of 1:250 or less. CONCLUSION: In countries where large scale conventional cytogenetic is hampered by its high cost and lack of technical expertise, QF-PCR may be used as the first line of screening for detection of chromosomal abnormalities. We also recommend QF-PCR for all the families that are seeking prenatal diagnosis of single gene disorders aneuploidies screening to be added to their work up.

Deletions in the survival motor neuron gene in Iranian patients with spinal muscular atrophy.

INTRODUCTION: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a common neuromuscular disorder with progressive paralysis caused by the loss of alpha-motor neurons in the spinal cord. The survival motor neuron (SMN) protein is encoded by 2 genes, SMN1 and SMN2. The most frequent mutation is the biallelic deletion of exon 7 of the SMN1 gene. In SMA, SMN2 cannot compensate for the loss of SMN1, due to the exclusion of exon 7. The aim of our study was to estimate the frequency of the common SMN1 exon 7 deletion in patients referred to our centre for carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed the detection of exon 7 deletion of the SMN1 gene for the affected patients and fetuses suspected to have SMA. RESULTS: Of 243 families, 195 were classified as SMA type I, 30 as type II, and 18 as type III according to their family histories. The analysis of exon 7 deletion among living affected children showed that 94% of the patients with SMA type I, 95% with type II families and 100% with type III had homozygous deletions. Of the prenatal diagnoses, 21 (22.8%) of the 92 fetuses were found to be affected and these pregnancies were terminated. CONCLUSIONS: The homozygosity frequency for the deletion of SMN1 exon 7 for all 3 types was (94%), similar to those of Western Europe, China, Japan and Kuwait.