Dominant KPNA3 Mutations Cause Infantile-Onset Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia.

OBJECTIVE: Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is a highly heterogeneous neurologic disorder characterized by lower-extremity spasticity. Here, we set out to determine the genetic basis of an autosomal dominant, pure, and infantile-onset form of HSP in a cohort of 8 patients with a uniform clinical presentation. METHODS: Trio whole-exome sequencing was used in 5 index patients with infantile-onset pure HSP to determine the genetic cause of disease. The functional impact of identified genetic variants was verified using bioinformatics and complementary cellular and biochemical assays. RESULTS: Distinct heterozygous KPNA3 missense variants were found to segregate with the clinical phenotype in 8 patients; in 4 of them KPNA3 variants had occurred de novo. Mutant karyopherin-α3 proteins exhibited a variable pattern of altered expression level, subcellular distribution, and protein interaction. INTERPRETATION: Our genetic findings implicate heterozygous variants in KPNA3 as a novel cause for autosomal dominant, early-onset, and pure HSP. Mutant karyopherin-α3 proteins display varying deficits in molecular and cellular functions, thus, for the first time, implicating dysfunctional nucleocytoplasmic shuttling as a novel pathomechanism causing HSP. ANN NEUROL 2021;90:738-750.

Biallelic variants in HPDL cause pure and complicated hereditary spastic paraplegia.

Human 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase-like (HPDL) is a putative iron-containing non-heme oxygenase of unknown specificity and biological significance. We report 25 families containing 34 individuals with neurological disease associated with biallelic HPDL variants. Phenotypes ranged from juvenile-onset pure hereditary spastic paraplegia to infantile-onset spasticity and global developmental delays, sometimes complicated by episodes of neurological and respiratory decompensation. Variants included bona fide pathogenic truncating changes, although most were missense substitutions. Functionality of variants could not be determined directly as the enzymatic specificity of HPDL is unknown; however, when HPDL missense substitutions were introduced into 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD, an HPDL orthologue), they impaired the ability of HPPD to convert 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate into homogentisate. Moreover, three additional sets of experiments provided evidence for a role of HPDL in the nervous system and further supported its link to neurological disease: (i) HPDL was expressed in the nervous system and expression increased during neural differentiation; (ii) knockdown of zebrafish hpdl led to abnormal motor behaviour, replicating aspects of the human disease; and (iii) HPDL localized to mitochondria, consistent with mitochondrial disease that is often associated with neurological manifestations. Our findings suggest that biallelic HPDL variants cause a syndrome varying from juvenile-onset pure hereditary spastic paraplegia to infantile-onset spastic tetraplegia associated with global developmental delays.

Expanding the phenotype spectrum associated with pathogenic variants in the COL2A1 and COL11A1 genes.

We report the clinical findings of 26 individuals from 16 unrelated families carrying variants in the COL2A1 or COL11A1 genes. Using Sanger and next-generation sequencing, 11 different COL2A1 variants (seven novel), were identified in 13 families (19 affected individuals), all diagnosed with Stickler syndrome (STL) type 1. In nine families, the COL2A1 disease-causing variant arose de novo. Phenotypically, we observed myopia (95%) and retinal detachment (47%), joint hyperflexibility (92%), midface retrusion (84%), cleft palate (53%), and various degrees of hearing impairment (50%). One patient had a splenic artery aneurysm. One affected individual carrying pathogenic variant in COL2A1 showed no ocular signs including no evidence of membranous vitreous anomaly. In three families (seven affected individuals), three novel COL11A1 variants were found. The propositus with a de novo variant showed an ultrarare Marshall/STL overlap. In the second family, the only common clinical sign was postlingual progressive sensorineural hearing impairment (DFNA37). Affected individuals from the third family had typical STL2 signs. The spectrum of disease phenotypes associated with COL2A1 or COL11A1 variants continues to expand and includes typical STL and various bone dysplasias, but also nonsyndromic hearing impairment, isolated myopia with or without retinal detachment, and STL phenotype without clinically detectable ocular pathology.

Spectrum and frequencies of non GJB2 gene mutations in Czech patients with early non-syndromic hearing loss detected by gene panel NGS and whole-exome sequencing.

Non-syndromic autosomal recessive hearing loss is an extremely heterogeneous disease caused by mutations in more than 80 genes. We examined Czech patients with early/prelingual non-syndromic, presumably genetic hearing loss (NSHL) without known cause after GJB2 gene testing. Four hundred and twenty-one unrelated patients were examined for STRC gene deletions with quantitative comparative fluorescent PCR (QCF PCR), 197 unrelated patients with next-generation sequencing by custom-designed NSHL gene panels and 19 patients with whole-exome sequencing (WES). Combining all methods, we discovered the cause of the disease in 54 patients. The most frequent type of NSHL was DFNB16 (STRC), which was detected in 22 patients, almost half of the clarified patients. Other biallelic pathogenic mutations were detected in the genes: MYO15A, LOXHD1, TMPRSS3 (each gene was responsible for five clarified patients, CDH23 (four clarified patients), OTOG and OTOF (each gene was responsible for two clarified patients). Other genes (AIFM1, CABP2, DIAPH1, PTPRQ, RDX, SLC26A4, TBC1D24, TECTA, TMC1) that explained the cause of hearing impairment were further detected in only one patient for each gene. STRC gene mutations, mainly deletions remain the most frequent NSHL cause after mutations in the GJB2.

Disease-Causing Variants in the ATL1 Gene Are a Rare Cause of Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia among Czech Patients.

Variants in the ATL1 gene have been repeatedly described as the second most frequent cause of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), a motor neuron disease manifested by progressive lower limb spasticity and weakness. Variants in ATL1 have been described mainly in patients with early onset HSP. We performed Sanger sequencing of all coding exons and adjacent intron regions of the ALT1 gene in 111 Czech patients with pure form of HSP and additional Multiplex-Ligation Probe Analysis (MLPA) testing targeting the ATL1 gene in 56 of them. All patients except seven were previously tested by Sanger sequencing of the SPAST gene with negative results. ATL1 diagnostic testing revealed only five missense variants in the ATL1 gene. Four of them are novel, but we suppose only two of them to be pathogenic and causal. The remaining variants are assumed to be benign. MLPA testing in 56 of sequence variant negative patients revealed no gross deletion in the ATL1 gene. Variants in the ATL1 gene are more frequent in patients with early onset HSP, but in general the occurrence of pathogenic variants in the ATL1 gene is low in our cohort, less than 4.5% and less than 11.1% in patients with onset before the age of ten. Variants in the ATL1 gene are a less frequent cause of HSP among Czech patients than has been previously reported among other populations.

SPAST mutation spectrum and familial occurrence among Czech patients with pure hereditary spastic paraplegia.

The SPAST gene has a major role in hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs). This is the first report mapping characteristics of the SPAST gene in a large cohort of Czech HSP patients. All 17 coding exons of the SPAST gene were Sanger sequenced in 327 patients from 263 independent families with suspected uncomplicated HSP. The selected 126 independent patients, without mutation in the SPAST gene after Sanger sequencing, were subsequently tested by Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification (MLPA) assay for large deletions or copy number variations affecting the SPAST gene. Among the 263 independent patients, 35 different, small mutations in 44 patients were found. Twenty-one mutations are novel with the majority of frameshift mutations. Seven mutations were found in more than one family. The age at onset ranged between preschool childhood and the fifth decade with inter- and intra-familiar differences. SPAST small mutations were detected in 16.7% (44/263) of independent tested patients. Mutations in the SPAST gene were found more frequently in familial cases (with affected relatives). Mutation were found in 31.9% (29/91 familial tested) in the familial patient group, whereas in the sporadic patient group, mutations were found in only 4.7% of cases (5/106 sporadic cases). Among SPAST-positive patients, 65.9% (29/44) were familial but only 11.4% (5/44) were sporadic. MLPA testing revealed four large deletions in four independent patients, all in familial-positive cases. Mutations in the SPAST gene are 5.8 × more frequent in familial than in sporadic cases. Large deletions were found only in familial patients. Diagnostic testing of the SPAST gene is useful only in positive family history patients not in sporadic cases.

Genetic testing in children enrolled in epilepsy surgery program. A real-life study.

OBJECTIVE: Although genetic causes of drug-resistant focal epilepsy and selected focal malformations of cortical development (MCD) have been described, a limited number of studies comprehensively analysed genetic diagnoses in patients undergoing pre-surgical evaluation, their outcomes and the effect of genetic diagnosis on surgical strategy. METHODS: We analysed a prospective cohort of children enrolled in epilepsy surgery program over January 2018-July 2022. The majority of patients underwent germline and/or somatic genetic testing. We searched for predictors of surgical outcome and positive result of germline genetic testing. RESULTS: Ninety-five patients were enrolled in epilepsy surgery program and 64 underwent resective epilepsy surgery. We ascertained germline genetic diagnosis in 13/74 patients having underwent germline gene testing (pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in CHRNA4, NPRL3, DEPDC5, FGF12, GRIA2, SZT2, STXBP1) and identified three copy number variants. Thirty-five patients underwent somatic gene testing; we detected 10 pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in genes SLC35A2, PTEN, MTOR, DEPDC5, NPRL3. Germline genetic diagnosis was significantly associated with the diagnosis of focal epilepsy with unknown seizure onset. SIGNIFICANCE: Germline and somatic gene testing can ascertain a definite genetic diagnosis in a significant subgroup of patients in epilepsy surgery programs. Diagnosis of focal genetic epilepsy may tip the scales against the decision to proceed with invasive EEG study or surgical resection; however, selected patients with genetic focal epilepsies associated with MCD may benefit from resective epilepsy surgery and therefore, a genetic diagnosis does not disqualify patients from presurgical evaluation and epilepsy surgery.

SPG11: clinical and genetic features of seven Czech patients and literature review.

SPG11 is one of the most frequent autosomal recessively inherited types of hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSP or SPG). We describe the first seven patients from the Czech Republic with biallelic pathogenic variants in the SPG11. The typical HSP neurological findings are present in all the described patients in that the signs of a complicated phenotype develop slowly. The speed of disease progression, and the severity of gait impairment, was fast in all patients but the phenotype varied from patient to patient. Thin corpus callosum was not observed in two patients. Two Czech SPG11 patients had unusual late onset of disease and both were compound heterozygotes for the c.5381T>C variant. Therefore, we looked for a potential ralationship between the type of variant in the SPG11 gene and the age of disease onset. By reviewing all described SPG11 patients carrying at least one missense pathogenic variant in the SPG11 gene we did not found any relationship between the age of onset and the type of variant. Together twelve pathogenic variants, including gross deletions, were found in the SPG11 gene the Czech SPG11 patients, the c.3454-2A>G variant is novel.

The Cause of Hereditary Hearing Loss in GJB2 Heterozygotes-A Comprehensive Study of the GJB2/DFNB1 Region.

Hearing loss is a genetically heterogeneous sensory defect, and the frequent causes are biallelic pathogenic variants in the GJB2 gene. However, patients carrying only one heterozygous pathogenic (monoallelic) GJB2 variant represent a long-lasting diagnostic problem. Interestingly, previous results showed that individuals with a heterozygous pathogenic GJB2 variant are two times more prevalent among those with hearing loss compared to normal-hearing individuals. This excess among patients led us to hypothesize that there could be another pathogenic variant in the GJB2 region/DFNB1 locus. A hitherto undiscovered variant could, in part, explain the cause of hearing loss in patients and would mean reclassifying them as patients with GJB2 biallelic pathogenic variants. In order to detect an unknown causal variant, we examined 28 patients using NGS with probes that continuously cover the 0.4 Mb in the DFNB1 region. An additional 49 patients were examined by WES to uncover only carriers. We did not reveal a second pathogenic variant in the DFNB1 region. However, in 19% of the WES-examined patients, the cause of hearing loss was found to be in genes other than the GJB2. We present evidence to show that a substantial number of patients are carriers of the GJB2 pathogenic variant, albeit only by chance.

GATOR1-related focal cortical dysplasia in epilepsy surgery patients and their families: A possible gradient in severity?

BACKGROUND: Variants of GATOR1-genes represent a recognised cause of focal cortical dysplasia (FCD), the most common structural aetiology in paediatric drug-resistant focal epilepsy. Reports on familial cases of GATOR1-associated FCD are limited, especially with respect to epilepsy surgery outcomes. METHODS: We present phenotypical manifestations of four unrelated patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy, FCD and a first-degree relative with epilepsy. All patients underwent targeted gene panel sequencing as a part of the presurgical work up. Literature search was performed to compare our findings to previously published cases. RESULTS: The children (probands) had a more severe phenotype than their parents, including drug-resistant epilepsy and developmental delay, and they failed to achieve seizure freedom post-surgically. All patients had histopathologically confirmed FCD (types IIa, IIb, Ia). In Patient 1 and her affected father, we detected a known pathogenic NPRL2 variant. In patients 2 and 3 and their affected parents, we found novel likely pathogenic germline DEPDC5 variants. In family 4, we detected a novel variant in NPRL3. We identified 15 additional cases who underwent epilepsy surgery for GATOR1-associated FCD, with a positive family history of epilepsy in the literature; in 8/13 tested, the variant was inherited from an asymptomatic parent. CONCLUSION: The presented cases displayed a severity gradient in phenotype with children more severely affected than the parents. Although patients with GATOR1-associated FCD are considered good surgical candidates, post-surgical seizure outcome was poor in our familial cases, suggesting that accurate identification of the epileptogenic zone may be more challenging in this subgroup of patients.

Two novel pathogenic variants in KIAA1109 causing Alkuraya-Kucinskas syndrome in two Czech Roma brothers.

Recently described Alkuraya-Kucinskas syndrome (ALKKUCS) clinically presented with severe congenital hydrocephalus, severe brain hypoplasia and other multiple malformations has been described in only few families worldwide to date. ALKKUCS is caused by biallelic pathogenic variants in the KIAA1109 gene with autosomal recessive inheritance. We describe two brothers of Roma origin born with severe congenital hydrocephalus, brain hypoplasia and other clinical findings corresponding with ALKKUCS. Using WES two novel pathogenic variants c.359-1G>A and c.14564_14565del in compound heterozygous status in the KIAA1109 gene were found in both brothers. We consider that the number of healthy heterozygous carriers of pathogenic variants in KIAA1109 could be higher than it is known and pathogenic variants in KIAA1109 could be more frequent cause of congenital hydrocephalus and severe brain dysplasias.

Two types of recessive hereditary spastic paraplegia in Roma patients in compound heterozygous state; no ethnically prevalent variant found.

Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP or SPG) is a group of rare upper motor neuron diseases. As some ethnically-specific, disease-causing homozygous variants were described in the Czech Roma population, we hypotesised that some prevalent HSP-causing variant could exist in this population. Eight Czech Roma patients were found in a large group of Czech patients with suspected HSP and were tested using gene panel massively parallel sequencing (MPS). Two of the eight were diagnosed with SPG11 and SPG77, respectively. The SPG77 patient manifests a pure HSP phenotype, which is unusual for this SPG type. Both patients are compound heterozygotes for two different variants in the SPG11 (c.1603-1G>A and del ex. 16-18) and FARS2 (c.1082C>T and del ex.1-2) genes respectively; the three variants are novel. In order to find a potential ethnically-specific, disease-causing variant for HSP, we tested the heterozygote frequency of these variants among 130 anonymised DNA samples of Czech Roma individuals without clinical signs of HSP (HPS-negative). A novel deletion of ex.16-18 in the SPG11 gene was found in a heterozygous state in one individual in the HSP-negative group. Haplotype analysis showed that this individual and the patient with SPG11 shared the same haplotype. This supports the assumption that the identified SPG11 deletion could be a founder mutation in the Czech Roma population. In some Roma patients the disease may also be caused by two different biallelic pathogenic mutations.

Variant c.2158-2A>G in MANBA is an important and frequent cause of hereditary hearing loss and beta-mannosidosis among the Czech and Slovak Roma population- evidence for a new ethnic-specific variant.

BACKGROUND: The Roma are a European ethnic minority threatened by several recessive diseases. Variants in MANBA cause a rare lysosomal storage disorder named beta-mannosidosis whose clinical manifestation includes deafness and mental retardation. Since 1986, only 23 patients with beta-mannosidosis and biallelic MANBA variants have been described worldwide. RESULTS: We now report on further 10 beta-mannosidosis patients of Roma origin from eight families in the Czech and Slovak Republics with hearing loss, mental retardation and homozygous pathogenic variants in MANBA. MANBA variant c.2158-2A>G screening among 345 anonymized normal hearing controls from Roma populations revealed a carrier/heterozygote frequency of 3.77%. This is about 925 times higher than the frequency of this variant in the gnomAD public database and classifies the c.2158-2A>G variant as a prevalent, ethnic-specific variant causing hearing loss and mental retardation in a homozygous state. The frequency of heterozygotes/carriers is similar to another pathogenic variant c.71G>A (p.W24*) in GJB2, regarded as the most frequent variant causing deafness in Roma populations. CONLCUSION: Beta-mannosidosis, due to a homozygous c.2158-2A>G MANBA variant, is an important and previously unknown cause of hearing loss and mental retardation among Central European Roma.

Autosomal recessive hereditary spastic paraplegia type SPG35 due to a novel variant in the FA2H gene in a Czech patient.

Biallelic pathogenic variants in FA2H gene have been repeatedly described as a cause of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) type35 (SPG35). Targeted massive parallel sequencing (MPS) of the HSP genes panel revealed a novel homozygous variant c.130C > T (p.P44S) in the FA2H gene in the 30-year-old patient presenting with spastic paraplegia. The patient originated form the Czech minority in Romania. The patient manifests typical clinical signs for SPG35 (youth onset gait impairment, progressive spastic paraparesis on lower limbs, dysarthria, white matter changes in MRI).

STRC Gene Mutations, Mainly Large Deletions, are a Very Important Cause of Early-Onset Hereditary Hearing Loss in the Czech Population.

INTRODUCTION: Hearing loss (HL) is the most common sensory deficit in humans. HL is an extremely heterogeneous condition presenting most frequently as a nonsyndromic (NS) condition inherited in an autosomal recessive (AR) pattern, termed DFNB. Mutations affecting the STRC gene cause DFNB type 16. Various types of mutations within the STRC gene have been reported from the U.S. and German populations, but no information about the relative contribution of STRC mutations to NSHL-AR among Czech patients is available. METHODS AND PATIENTS: Two hundred and eighty-eight patients with prelingual NSHL, either sporadic (n = 207) or AR (n = 81), who had been previously tested negative for the mutations affecting the GJB2 gene, were included in the study. These patients were tested for STRC mutations by a quantitative comparative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR) assay. In addition, 31 of the 81 NSHL-AR patients were analyzed by massively parallel sequencing using one of two different gene panels: 23 patients were analyzed by multiplex-ligation probe amplification (MLPA); and 9 patients by SNP microarrays. RESULTS: Causal mutations affecting the STRC gene (including copy number variations [CNVs] and point mutations) were found in 5.5% of all patients and 13.6% of the 81 patients in the subgroup with NSHL-AR. CONCLUSION: Our results provide strong evidence that STRC gene mutations are an important cause of NSHL-AR in Czech HL patients and are probably the second most common cause of DFNB. Large CNVs were more frequent than point mutations and it is reasonable to test them first by a QF-PCR method-a simple, accessible, and efficient tool for STRC CNV detection, which can be combined by MLPA.

Mutations in eight small DFNB genes are not a frequent cause of non-syndromic hereditary hearing loss in Czech patients.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the contribution of eight small NSHL-AR (non-syndromic deafness, autosomal recessive) genes to hereditary hearing loss in Czech patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Unrelated Czech patients, adults and children, diagnosed with pre-lingual hereditary hearing loss with at least one similarly affected deaf sibling and with previously excluded mutations in the GJB2 gene were investigated by Sanger sequencing of the selected eight small NSHL-AR associated genes (CABP2 - 51 patients, CIB2 - 45 patients, PJVK/DFNB59 - 53 patients, GJB3 - 46 patients, ILDR1 - 48 patients, LHFPL5 - 66 patients, LRTOMT - 60 patients, TMIE - 64 patients). RESULTS: Mutations were detected in the LHFPL5 (DFNB67) gene. The patient is heterozygote for two already described pathogenic variants (p.Tyr127Cys, p.Thr165Met). In five samples, five rare heterozygous variants (two novel) predicted as pathogenic were detected in genes CABP2, ILDR1, LHFPL5 and LRTOMT. CONCLUSION: Mutations in eight small NSHL-AR genes are not a frequent cause of hereditary hearing loss in the Czech Republic. This diagnostic approach permitted the clarification of HL in only one patient - two heterozygous mutations were detected in LHFPL5 gene for the first time in Central Europe. As the use of panel base MPS certainly improves the diagnostic yield, future studies should rather profit from that diagnostic strategy.

Clinical significance of hypermethylation status in NSCLC: evaluation of a 30-gene panel in patients with advanced disease.

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is one of major factors in cancer progression. We observed multiple genes involved in cancer-related signaling and focused on patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and evaluated methylation in relation to various clinical parameters. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty genes were examined in 121 NSCLC patients using the methylation-specific multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MS-MLPA) method. Correlations to gender, smoking status, tumor subtype, disease stage and EGFR/KRAS mutation status were performed by chi-square test. RESULTS: 90% of tumors exhibited methylation of at least one gene. Most frequently methylated were cadherin-13 (CDH13), Ras associated domain-containing protein (RASSF1A), Wilms' tumor protein (WT1), adenomatous polyposis coli protein (APC), paired box protein Pax-5 (PAX5), estrogen receptor (ESR1), an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase p15 (CDKN2B), paired box protein Pax-6 (PAX6), transcription factor GATA-5 (GATA5) and cell adhesion molecule 4 (IGSF4). Overall methylation (any gene) was increased in adenocarcinomas (p=0.0329), unrelated to gender or disease stage. Several genes exhibited variable methylation with gender (CDH13, p<0.001; GATA5, p=0.02; PAX6, p=0.01 and ESR1, p=0.03), smoking (CDH13, p=0.002), or epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status [Von Hippel-Lindau disease tumor supresor (VHL), p=0.001; CDKN2B, p=0.02; CDH13, p=0.02; APC, p=0.04 and ESR1, p=0.04]. CONCLUSION: Differences in gene methylation associated with gender, smoking and EGFR mutation suggest potential for prediction in relation to management of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy.