Genetics of ataxia telangiectasia in a highly consanguineous population.

Ataxia telangiectasia (AT) is a rare autosomal recessive multisystemic disorder. It usually presents in toddler years with progressive ataxia and oculomotor apraxia, or less commonly, in the late-first or early-second decade of life with mixed movement disorders. Biallelic mutations in ataxia telangiectasia mutated gene (ATM) cause AT phenotype, a disease not well documented in Saudi Arabia, a highly consanguineous society. We studied several Saudi AT patients, identified ATM variants, and investigated associated clinical features. We included 17 patients from 12 consanguineous families. All patients had comprehensive clinical and radiological assessment, and most were examined through whole-exome sequencing (WES). Selected individuals were analyzed using various genetic approaches. We identified five different ATM variants in our patients: three previously reported mutations, and two novel variants. Nearly all patients had classical AT presentation except for two patients with a milder phenotype. Among the three known variants, a deletion causing truncation (c.381delA resulting in p.(Val128Ter)) was identified in 13 patients. Two patients harboured the other two truncating variants, (c.9001_9002delAG resulting in p.Ser3001Phefs*6) and (c.9066delA resulting in p.Glu3023Alafs*10) and two patients had novel compound heterozygous variants (NM_000051.3:Paternal Allele:c.8762C > G;p.Thr2921Arg and Maternal Allele:c.1057T > C;p.Cys353Arg). We speculate that c.381delA is a founder mutation in our population. This study provides a genotype-phenotype relationship in a previously unstudied consanguineous population. Our findings contribute to improve local clinical care, therapy, and genetic counseling.

Genetic basis of pulmonary arterial hypertension: a prospective study from a highly inbred population.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), whether idiopathic PAH (IPAH), heritable PAH, or associated with other conditions, is a rare and potentially lethal disease characterized by progressive vascular changes. To date, there is limited data on the genetic basis of PAH in the Arab region, and none from Saudi Arabian patients. This study aims to identify genetic variations and to evaluate the frequency of risk genes associated to PAH, in Saudi Arabian patients. Adult PAH patients, diagnosed with IPAH and pulmonary veno-occlusive disease, of Saudi Arabian origin, were enrolled in this study. Forty-eight patients were subjected to whole-exome sequencing, with screening of 26 genes suggested to be associated with the disease. The median age at diagnosis was 29.5 years of age, with females accounting for 89.5% of our cohort population. Overall, we identified variations in nine genes previously associated with PAH, in 16 patients. Fourteen of these variants have not been described before. Plausible deleterious variants in risk genes were identified in 33.3% (n = 16/48) of our entire cohort and 25% of these cases carried variants in BMPR2 (n = 4/16). Our results highlight the genetic etiology of PAH in Saudi Arabia patients and provides new insights for the genetic diagnosis of familial and IPAH as well as for the identification of the biological pathways of the disease. This will enable the development of new target therapeutic strategies, for a disease with a high rate of morbidity and mortality.

SLC25A42-associated mitochondrial encephalomyopathy: Report of additional founder cases and functional characterization of a novel deletion.

SLC25A42 is the main transporter of coenzyme A (CoA) into mitochondria. To date, 15 individuals have been reported to have one of two bi-allelic homozygous missense variants in the SLC25A42 as the cause of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, of which 14 of them were of Saudi origin and share the same founder variant, c.871A > G:p.Asn291Asp. The other subject was of German origin with a variant at canonical splice site, c.380 + 2 T > A. Here, we describe the clinical manifestations and the disease course in additional six Saudi patients from four unrelated consanguineous families. While five patients have the Saudi founder p.Asn291Asp variant, one subject has a novel deletion. Functional analyses on fibroblasts obtained from this patient revealed that the deletion causes significant decrease in mitochondrial oxygen consumption and ATP production compared to healthy individuals. Moreover, extracellular acidification rate revealed significantly reduced glycolysis, glycolytic capacity, and glycolytic reserve as compared to control individuals. There were no changes in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content of patient fibroblasts. Immunoblotting experiments revealed significantly diminished protein expression due to the deletion. In conclusion, we report additional patients with SLC25A42-associated mitochondrial encephalomyopathy. Our study expands the molecular spectrum of this condition and provides further evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction as a central cause of pathology. We therefore propose that this disorder should be included in the differential diagnosis of any patient with an unexplained motor and speech delay, recurrent encephalopathy with metabolic acidosis, intermittent or persistent dystonia, lactic acidosis, basal ganglia lesions and, especially, of Arab ethnicity. Finally, deep brain stimulation should be considered in the management of patients with life altering dystonia.

A homozygous loss-of-function mutation in GP1BB causing variable clinical phenotypes in a family with Bernard-Soulier syndrome.

Bernard-Soulier syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive bleeding disorder and has a low incidence. Bernard-Soulier syndrome is caused by the deficiency of glycoprotein GPIb-V-IX complex, a receptor for von Willebrand factor and is characterized by thrombocytopenia, giant platelets and bleeding tendency. We are reporting three members of a same family with variable phenotypic clinical presentation. The index case is a 20-year-old boy who has a frequent presentation with epistaxis, and low platelet counts (25 × 109/l). He had been hospitalized multiple times and received platelet transfusions. His brother and cousin reported bleeding symptoms with less frequent medical intervention. Genetic analysis by next-generation sequencing identified a homozygous GP1BB variant (c.423C>A:p.Cys141Ter), which segregated amongst the family members. The results led us to an improved insight into the disease for this family with variable phenotypic expression, in addition to the identification of a variant for further structural and functional characterization.

Pyrostigmine therapy in a patient with VAMP1-related congenital myasthenic syndrome.

Congenital myasthenic syndrome comprises several genetic disorders that impair neuromuscular junction transmission. Causative mutations occur in at least 30 genes, approximately 6-8% of which are presynaptic. One such gene, VAMP1, encodes vesicle-associated membrane protein-1, which is crucial in the formation and fusion of synaptic vesicles with the presynaptic membrane at the neuromuscular junction. VAMP1 mutations are associated with two main phenotypes: a) autosomal recessive congenital myasthenic syndrome and b) autosomal dominant spastic ataxia 1. We report a girl from a consanguineous Saudi family presenting with hypotonia, developmental delay, feeding difficulties and floppiness since birth. Comprehensive genetic testing revealed a homozygous splicing mutation in VAMP1. RT-PCR confirmed the presence of an aberrant transcript causing skipping of exon 2 in the gene.

Rett Syndrome, a Neurodevelopmental Disorder, Whole-Transcriptome, and Mitochondrial Genome Multiomics Analyses Identify Novel Variations and Disease Pathways.

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder reported worldwide in diverse populations. RTT is diagnosed primarily in females, with clinical findings manifesting early in life. Despite the variable rates across populations, RTT has an estimated prevalence of ∼1 in 10,000 live female births. Among 215 Saudi Arabian patients with neurodevelopmental and autism spectrum disorders, we identified 33 patients with RTT who were subsequently examined by genome-wide transcriptome and mitochondrial genome variations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first in-depth molecular and multiomics analyses of a large cohort of Saudi RTT cases with a view to informing the underlying mechanisms of this disease that impact many patients and families worldwide. The patients were unrelated, except for 2 affected sisters, and comprised of 25 classic and eight atypical RTT cases. The cases were screened for methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2), CDKL5, FOXG1, NTNG1, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants, as well as copy number variations (CNVs) using a genome-wide experimental strategy. We found that 15 patients (13 classic and two atypical RTT) have MECP2 mutations, 2 of which were novel variants. Two patients had novel FOXG1 and CDKL5 variants (both atypical RTT). Whole mtDNA sequencing of the patients who were MECP2 negative revealed two novel mtDNA variants in two classic RTT patients. Importantly, the whole-transcriptome analysis of our RTT patients' blood and further comparison with previous expression profiling of brain tissue from patients with RTT revealed 77 significantly dysregulated genes. The gene ontology and interaction network analysis indicated potentially critical roles of MAPK9, NDUFA5, ATR, SMARCA5, RPL23, SRSF3, and mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress response and MAPK signaling pathways in the pathogenesis of RTT genes. This study expands our knowledge on RTT disease networks and pathways as well as presents novel mutations and mtDNA alterations in RTT in a population sample that was not previously studied.

Identification of novel genomic imbalances in Saudi patients with congenital heart disease.

BACKGROUND: Quick genetic diagnosis of a patient with congenital heart disease (CHD) is quite important for proper health care and management. Copy number variations (CNV), chromosomal imbalances and rearrangements have been frequently associated with CHD. Previously, due to limitations of microscope based standard karyotyping techniques copious CNVs and submicroscopic imbalances could not be detected in numerous CHD patients. The aim of our study is to identify cytogenetic abnormalities among the selected CHD cases (n = 17) of the cohort using high density oligo arrays. RESULTS: Our screening study indicated that six patients (~35%) have various cytogenetic abnormalities. Among the patients, only patient 2 had a duplication whereas the rest carried various deletions. The patients 1, 4 and 6 have only single large deletions throughout their genome; a 3.2 Mb deletion on chromosome 7, a 3.35 Mb deletion on chromosome 3, and a 2.78 Mb a deletion on chromosome 2, respectively. Patients 3 and 5 have two deletions on different chromosomes. Patient 3 has deletions on chromosome 2 (2q24.1; 249 kb) and 16 (16q22.2; 1.8 Mb). Patient 4 has a 3.35 Mb an interstitial deletion on chromosome 3 (3q13.2q13.31).Based on our search on the latest available literature, our study is the first inclusive array CGH evaluation on Saudi cohort of CHD patients. CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes the importance of the arrays in genetic diagnosis of CHD. Based on our results the high resolution arrays should be utilized as first-tier diagnostic tool in clinical care as suggested before by others. Moreover, previously evaluated negative CHD cases (based on standard karyotyping methods) should be re-examined by microarray based cytogenetic methods.