Comprehensive EHMT1 variants analysis broadens genotype-phenotype associations and molecular mechanisms in Kleefstra syndrome.

The shift to a genotype-first approach in genetic diagnostics has revolutionized our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders, expanding both their molecular and phenotypic spectra. Kleefstra syndrome (KLEFS1) is caused by EHMT1 haploinsufficiency and exhibits broad clinical manifestations. EHMT1 encodes euchromatic histone methyltransferase-1-a pivotal component of the epigenetic machinery. We have recruited 209 individuals with a rare EHMT1 variant and performed comprehensive molecular in silico and in vitro testing alongside DNA methylation (DNAm) signature analysis for the identified variants. We (re)classified the variants as likely pathogenic/pathogenic (molecularly confirming Kleefstra syndrome) in 191 individuals. We provide an updated and broader clinical and molecular spectrum of Kleefstra syndrome, including individuals with normal intelligence and familial occurrence. Analysis of the EHMT1 variants reveals a broad range of molecular effects and their associated phenotypes, including distinct genotype-phenotype associations. Notably, we showed that disruption of the "reader" function of the ankyrin repeat domain by a protein altering variant (PAV) results in a KLEFS1-specific DNAm signature and milder phenotype, while disruption of only "writer" methyltransferase activity of the SET domain does not result in KLEFS1 DNAm signature or typical KLEFS1 phenotype. Similarly, N-terminal truncating variants result in a mild phenotype without the DNAm signature. We demonstrate how comprehensive variant analysis can provide insights into pathogenesis of the disorder and DNAm signature. In summary, this study presents a comprehensive overview of KLEFS1 and EHMT1, revealing its broader spectrum and deepening our understanding of its molecular mechanisms, thereby informing accurate variant interpretation, counseling, and clinical management.

Expanding the phenotype of Kleefstra syndrome: speech, language and cognition in 103 individuals.

OBJECTIVES: Speech and language impairments are core features of the neurodevelopmental genetic condition Kleefstra syndrome. Communication has not been systematically examined to guide intervention recommendations. We define the speech, language and cognitive phenotypic spectrum in a large cohort of individuals with Kleefstra syndrome. METHOD: 103 individuals with Kleefstra syndrome (40 males, median age 9.5 years, range 1-43 years) with pathogenic variants (52 9q34.3 deletions, 50 intragenic variants, 1 balanced translocation) were included. Speech, language and non-verbal communication were assessed. Cognitive, health and neurodevelopmental data were obtained. RESULTS: The cognitive spectrum ranged from average intelligence (12/79, 15%) to severe intellectual disability (12/79, 15%). Language ability also ranged from average intelligence (10/90, 11%) to severe intellectual disability (53/90, 59%). Speech disorders occurred in 48/49 (98%) verbal individuals and even occurred alongside average language and cognition. Developmental regression occurred in 11/80 (14%) individuals across motor, language and psychosocial domains. Communication aids, such as sign and speech-generating devices, were crucial for 61/103 (59%) individuals including those who were minimally verbal, had a speech disorder or following regression. CONCLUSIONS: The speech, language and cognitive profile of Kleefstra syndrome is broad, ranging from severe impairment to average ability. Genotype and age do not explain the phenotypic variability. Early access to communication aids may improve communication and quality of life.

Clinical utility of a genetic diagnosis in individuals with cerebral palsy and related motor disorders.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the clinical utility of a genetic diagnosis in CP remains limited. We aimed to characterize the clinical utility of a genetic diagnosis by exome sequencing (ES) in patients with CP and related motor disorders. METHODS: We enrolled participants with CP and "CP masquerading" conditions in an institutional ES initiative. In those with genetic diagnoses who had clinical visits to discuss results, we retrospectively reviewed medical charts, evaluating recommendations based on the genetic diagnosis pertaining to medication intervention, surveillance initiation, variant-specific testing, and patient education. RESULTS: We included 30 individuals with a molecular diagnosis and clinical follow-up. Nearly all (28 out of 30) had clinical impact resulting from the genetic diagnosis. Medication interventions included recommendation of mitochondrial multivitamin supplementation (6.67%, n = 2), ketogenic diet (3.33%, n = 1), and fasting avoidance (3.33%, n = 1). Surveillance-related actions included recommendations for investigating systemic complications (40%, n = 12); referral to new specialists to screen for systemic manifestations (33%, n = 10); continued follow-up with established specialists to focus on specific manifestations (16.67%, n = 5); referral to clinical genetics (16.67%, n = 5) to oversee surveillance recommendations. Variant-specific actions included carrier testing (10%, n = 3) and testing of potentially affected relatives (3.33%, n = 1). Patient education-specific actions included referral to experts in the genetic disorder (30%, n = 9); and counseling about possible changes in prognosis, including recognition of disease progression and early mortality (36.67%, n = 11). INTERPRETATION: This study highlights the clinical utility of a genetic diagnosis for CP and "CP masquerading" conditions, evident by medication interventions, surveillance impact, family member testing, and patient education, including possible prognostic changes.

Toward representative genomic research: the children's rare disease cohorts experience.

Background: Due to racial, cultural, and linguistic marginalization, some populations experience disproportionate barriers to genetic testing in both clinical and research settings. It is difficult to track such disparities due to non-inclusive self-reported race and ethnicity categories within the electronic health record (EHR). Inclusion and access for all populations is critical to achieve health equity and to capture the full spectrum of rare genetic disease. Objective: We aimed to create revised race and ethnicity categories. Additionally, we identified racial and ethnic under-representation amongst three cohorts: (1) the general Boston Children's Hospital patient population (general BCH), (2) the BCH patient population that underwent clinical genomic testing (clinical sequencing), and (3) Children's Rare Disease Cohort (CRDC) research initiative participants. Design and Methods: Race and ethnicity data were collected from the EHRs of the general BCH, clinical sequencing, and CRDC cohorts. We constructed a single comprehensive set of race and ethnicity categories. EHR-based race and ethnicity variables were mapped within each cohort to the revised categories. Then, the numbers of patients within each revised race and ethnicity category were compared across cohorts. Results: There was a significantly lower percentage of Black or African American/African, non-Hispanic/non-Latine individuals in the CRDC cohort compared with the general BCH cohort, but there was no statistically significant difference between the CRDC and the clinical sequencing cohorts. There was a significantly lower percentage of multi-racial, Hispanic/Latine individuals in the CRDC cohort than the clinical sequencing cohort. White, non-Hispanic/non-Latine individuals were over-represented in the CRDC compared to the two other groups. Conclusion: We highlight underrepresentation of certain racial and ethnic populations in sequencing cohorts compared to the general hospital population. We propose a range of measures to address these disparities, to strive for equitable future precision medicine-based clinical care and for the benefit of the whole rare disease community.

Racial and ethnic representation amongst general clinics, clinics that provide genetic testing, and genomic-based research at Boston Children's Hospital Background: Individuals who identify as belonging to a race or ethnicity that has been historically excluded from mainstream cultural, political, and economic activities ('historically marginalized') experience barriers to clinical care. These barriers are further complicated for families touched by rare genetic conditions. Obstacles can present as accessibility issues (transportation, financial, linguistic), low-quality medical care, or inadequate inclusion in research. It is important to have representation within rare disease research so that the full scope of these conditions is understood, leading to better patient care for all, and for health equity. Objective: We aimed to (1) to create new and inclusive race and ethnicity categories for the electronic health record (EHR) and (2) identify differences in racial and ethnic representation amongst patients generally seen at Boston Children's Hospital (general BCH), those who received genetic testing in a clinic at Boston Children's Hospital (clinical sequencing), and participants who enrolled in the CRDC research project at Boston Children's Hospital (CRDC). Design and Methods: We combined race and ethnicity categories to make more inclusive options than existing EHR categories. Differences in race and ethnicity representation were observed when looking at the three different patient groups (general BCH, clinical sequencing, and CRDC). Results: We observed a lower percentage of individuals who self-identify as Black or African American/African, non-Hispanic/non-Latine in the genetic testing groups (both research and clinical) than in the general BCH group. Individuals who self-identify as multi-racial, Hispanic/Latine are also under-represented in the CRDC research compared to the two other groups. The highest population percentage seen in all groups was that of patients who identify as White, non-Hispanic/non-Latine. This group was over-represented in the research CRDC group compared to the two others. Conclusion: Our study found that patients who are historically marginalized are underrepresented in clinical genetic testing and genomic research studies compared to their White counterparts. In order to benefit all patients with rare genetic conditions, these differences must be addressed by improving access to specialty physicians/researchers and incorporating inclusive language in the EHR, clinics, and research protocols.

CUX1-related neurodevelopmental disorder: deep insights into phenotype-genotype spectrum and underlying pathology.

Heterozygous, pathogenic CUX1 variants are associated with global developmental delay or intellectual disability. This study delineates the clinical presentation in an extended cohort and investigates the molecular mechanism underlying the disorder in a Cux1+/- mouse model. Through international collaboration, we assembled the phenotypic and molecular information for 34 individuals (23 unpublished individuals). We analyze brain CUX1 expression and susceptibility to epilepsy in Cux1+/- mice. We describe 34 individuals, from which 30 were unrelated, with 26 different null and four missense variants. The leading symptoms were mild to moderate delayed speech and motor development and borderline to moderate intellectual disability. Additional symptoms were muscular hypotonia, seizures, joint laxity, and abnormalities of the forehead. In Cux1+/- mice, we found delayed growth, histologically normal brains, and increased susceptibility to seizures. In Cux1+/- brains, the expression of Cux1 transcripts was half of WT animals. Expression of CUX1 proteins was reduced, although in early postnatal animals significantly more than in adults. In summary, disease-causing CUX1 variants result in a non-syndromic phenotype of developmental delay and intellectual disability. In some individuals, this phenotype ameliorates with age, resulting in a clinical catch-up and normal IQ in adulthood. The post-transcriptional balance of CUX1 expression in the heterozygous brain at late developmental stages appears important for this favorable clinical course.

Identification of a Synthetic Lethal Relationship between Nucleotide Excision Repair Deficiency and Irofulven Sensitivity in Urothelial Cancer.

PURPOSE: Cisplatin-based chemotherapy is a first-line treatment for muscle-invasive and metastatic urothelial cancer. Approximately 10% of bladder urothelial tumors have a somatic missense mutation in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) gene, ERCC2, which confers increased sensitivity to cisplatin-based chemotherapy. However, a significant subset of patients is ineligible to receive cisplatin-based therapy due to medical contraindications, and no NER-targeted approaches are available for platinum-ineligible or platinum-refractory ERCC2-mutant cases. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We used a series of NER-proficient and NER-deficient preclinical tumor models to test sensitivity to irofulven, an abandoned anticancer agent. In addition, we used available clinical and sequencing data from multiple urothelial tumor cohorts to develop and validate a composite mutational signature of ERCC2 deficiency and cisplatin sensitivity. RESULTS: We identified a novel synthetic lethal relationship between tumor NER deficiency and sensitivity to irofulven. Irofulven specifically targets cells with inactivation of the transcription-coupled NER (TC-NER) pathway and leads to robust responses in vitro and in vivo, including in models with acquired cisplatin resistance, while having minimal effect on cells with intact NER. We also found that a composite mutational signature of ERCC2 deficiency was strongly associated with cisplatin response in patients and was also associated with cisplatin and irofulven sensitivity in preclinical models. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor NER deficiency confers sensitivity to irofulven, a previously abandoned anticancer agent, with minimal activity in NER-proficient cells. A composite mutational signature of NER deficiency may be useful in identifying patients likely to respond to NER-targeting agents, including cisplatin and irofulven.See related commentary by Jiang and Greenberg, p. 1833.

EZH2 has a non-catalytic and PRC2-independent role in stabilizing DDB2 to promote nucleotide excision repair.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly aggressive malignancy with poor outcomes associated with resistance to cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) is the catalytic subunit of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), which silences transcription through trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3) and has emerged as an important therapeutic target with inhibitors targeting its methyltransferase activity under clinical investigation. Here, we show that EZH2 has a non-catalytic and PRC2-independent role in stabilizing DDB2 to promote nucleotide excision repair (NER) and govern cisplatin resistance in SCLC. Using a synthetic lethality screen, we identified important regulators of cisplatin resistance in SCLC cells, including EZH2. EZH2 depletion causes cellular cisplatin and UV hypersensitivity in an epistatic manner with DDB1-DDB2. EZH2 complexes with DDB1-DDB2 and promotes DDB2 stability by impairing its ubiquitination independent of methyltransferase activity or PRC2, thereby facilitating DDB2 localization to cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer crosslinks to govern their repair. Furthermore, targeting EZH2 for depletion with DZNep strongly sensitizes SCLC cells and tumors to cisplatin. Our findings reveal a non-catalytic and PRC2-independent function for EZH2 in promoting NER through DDB2 stabilization, suggesting a rationale for targeting EZH2 beyond its catalytic activity for overcoming cisplatin resistance in SCLC.

Functional profiling of nucleotide Excision repair in breast cancer.

Homologous recombination deficiency conferred by alterations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 are common in breast tumors and can drive sensitivity to platinum chemotherapy and PARP inhibitors. Alterations in nucleotide excision repair (NER) activity can also impact sensitivity to DNA damaging agents, but NER activity in breast cancer has been poorly characterized. Here, we apply a novel immunofluorescence-based cellular NER assay to screen a large panel of breast epithelial and cancer cell lines. Although the majority of breast cancer models are NER proficient, we identify an example of a breast cancer cell line with profound NER deficiency. We show that NER deficiency in this model is driven by epigenetic silencing of the ERCC4 gene, leading to lack of expression of the NER nuclease XPF, and that ERCC4 methylation is also strongly correlated with ERCC4 mRNA and XPF protein expression in primary breast tumors. Re-expression of XPF in the ERCC4-deficient breast cancer rescues NER deficiency and cisplatin sensitivity, but does not impact PARP inhibitor sensitivity. These findings demonstrate the potential to use functional assays to identify novel mechanisms of DNA repair deficiency and nominate NER deficiency as a platinum sensitivity biomarker in breast cancer.

ERCC2 Helicase Domain Mutations Confer Nucleotide Excision Repair Deficiency and Drive Cisplatin Sensitivity in Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer.

PURPOSE: DNA-damaging agents comprise the backbone of systemic treatment for many tumor types; however, few reliable predictive biomarkers are available to guide use of these agents. In muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), cisplatin-based chemotherapy improves survival, yet response varies widely among patients. Here, we sought to define the role of the nucleotide excision repair (NER) gene ERCC2 as a biomarker predictive of response to cisplatin in MIBC. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Somatic missense mutations in ERCC2 are associated with improved response to cisplatin-based chemotherapy; however, clinically identified ERCC2 mutations are distributed throughout the gene, and the impact of individual ERCC2 variants on NER capacity and cisplatin sensitivity is unknown. We developed a microscopy-based NER assay to profile ERCC2 mutations observed retrospectively in prior studies and prospectively within the context of an institution-wide tumor profiling initiative. In addition, we created the first ERCC2-deficient bladder cancer preclinical model for studying the impact of ERCC2 loss of function. RESULTS: We used our functional assay to test the NER capacity of clinically observed ERCC2 mutations and found that most ERCC2 helicase domain mutations cannot support NER. Furthermore, we show that introducing an ERCC2 mutation into a bladder cancer cell line abrogates NER activity and is sufficient to drive cisplatin sensitivity in an orthotopic xenograft model. CONCLUSIONS: Our data support a direct role for ERCC2 mutations in driving cisplatin response, define the functional landscape of ERCC2 mutations in bladder cancer, and provide an opportunity to apply combined genomic and functional approaches to prospectively guide therapy decisions in bladder cancer.See related commentary by Grivas, p. 907.