Zika Virus Changes Methylation of Genes Involved in Immune Response and Neural Development in Brazilian Babies Born With Congenital Microcephaly.

The recent increase in babies born with brain and eye malformations in Brazil is associated with Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in utero. ZIKV alters host DNA methylation in vitro. Using genome-wide DNA methylation profiling we compared 18 babies born with congenital ZIKV microcephaly with 20 controls. We found ZIKV-associated alteration of host methylation patterns, notably at RABGAP1L which is important in brain development, at viral host immunity genes MX1 and ISG15, and in an epigenetic module containing the causal microcephaly gene MCPH1. Our data support the hypothesis that clinical signs of congenital ZIKV are associated with changes in DNA methylation.

Long-term impact of early initiation of enzyme replacement therapy in 34 MPS VI patients: A resurvey study.

Patients with mucopolysaccharidosis type VI (MPS VI) present with a wide range of disease severity and clinical manifestations, with significant functional impairment and shortened lifespan. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with galsulfase has been shown to improve clinical and biochemical parameters including patient survival, quality of life and growth. The present study is a resurvey of 34 Brazilian MPS VI patients with rapidly progressive disease (classical phenotype) who initiated ERT with galsulfase under five years of age and had been on ERT until data collection in 2019, with few exceptions (n = 4 patients who died before 2019). Anthropometric measures, urinary glycosaminoglycans, and data regarding cardiac, orthopedic, neurologic, sleep apnea, hearing and ophthalmologic outcomes were filled in by specialists. Pubertal development, clinical complications, hospitalizations, and surgeries were also assessed. In this resurvey study, treatment with galsulfase has shown to be safe and well tolerated in MPS VI patients who initiated ERT under the age of 5 years and who have been undergoing ERT for approximately 10 years. Mortality rate suggests that early initiation of ERT may have a positive impact on patients' survival, improving but not preventing disease progression and death. MPS VI patients on ERT also showed improved growth velocity and the pubertal development was normal in all surviving patients. Follow-up data on pneumonia and hospitalization suggest that early ERT may have a protective effect against major respiratory complications. Cardiac valve disease progressed since their prior evaluation and spinal cord compression was observed in a large number of patients, suggesting that these disease complications were not modified by ERT.

The phenotypic spectrum of congenital Zika syndrome.

In October 2015, Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MoH). In response, the Brazilian Society of Medical Genetics established a task force (SBGM-ZETF) to study the phenotype of infants born with microcephaly due to ZIKV congenital infection and delineate the phenotypic spectrum of this newly recognized teratogen. This study was based on the clinical evaluation and neuroimaging of 83 infants born during the period from July, 2015 to March, 2016 and registered by the SBGM-ZETF. All 83 infants had significant findings on neuroimaging consistent with ZIKV congenital infection and 12 had confirmed ZIKV IgM in CSF. A recognizable phenotype of microcephaly, anomalies of the shape of skull and redundancy of the scalp consistent with the Fetal Brain Disruption Sequence (FBDS) was present in 70% of infants, but was most often subtle. In addition, features consistent with fetal immobility, ranging from dimples (30.1%), distal hand/finger contractures (20.5%), and feet malpositions (15.7%), to generalized arthrogryposis (9.6%), were present in these infants. Some cases had milder microcephaly or even a normal head circumference (HC), and other less distinctive findings. The detailed observation of the dysmorphic and neurologic features in these infants provides insight into the mechanisms and timings of the brain disruption and the sequence of developmental anomalies that may occur after prenatal infection by the ZIKV.

Reference exome data for a Northern Brazilian population.

Exome sequencing is widely used in the diagnosis of rare genetic diseases and provides useful variant data for analysis of complex diseases. There is not always adequate population-specific reference data to assist in assigning a diagnostic variant to a specific clinical condition. Here we provide a catalogue of variants called after sequencing the exomes of 45 babies from Rio Grande do Nord in Brazil. Sequence data were processed using an 'intersect-then-combine' (ITC) approach, using GATK and SAMtools to call variants. A total of 612,761 variants were identified in at least one individual in this Brazilian Cohort, including 559,448 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and 53,313 insertion/deletions. Of these, 58,111 overlapped with nonsynonymous (nsSNVs) or splice site (ssSNVs) SNVs in dbNSFP. As an aid to clinical diagnosis of rare diseases, we used the American College of Medicine Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) guidelines to assign pathogenic/likely pathogenic status to 185 (0.32%) of the 58,111 nsSNVs and ssSNVs. Our data set provides a useful reference point for diagnosis of rare diseases in Brazil. (169 words).

Molecular analysis of TSC1 and TSC2 genes and phenotypic correlations in Brazilian families with tuberous sclerosis.

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant multisystem disorder characterized by the development of multiple hamartomas in many organs and tissues. It occurs due to inactivating mutations in either of the two genes, TSC1 and TSC2, following a second hit in a tumor suppressor gene in most hamartomas. Comprehensive screening for mutations in both the TSC1 and TSC2 loci has been performed in several cohorts of patients and a broad spectrum of pathogenic mutations have been described. In Brazil, there is no data regarding incidence and prevalence of tuberous sclerosis and mutations in TSC1 and TSC2. We analyzed both genes in 53 patients with high suspicion of tuberous sclerosis using multiplex-ligation dependent probe amplification and a customized next generation sequencing panel. Confirmation of all variants was done by the Sanger method. We identified 50 distinct variants in 47 (89%) of the patients. Five were large rearrangements and 45 were point mutations. The symptoms presented by our series of patients were not different between male and female individuals, except for the more common occurrence of shagreen patch in women (p = 0.028). In our series, consistent with other studies, TSC2 mutations were associated with a more severe phenotypic spectrum than TSC1 mutations. This is the first study that sought to characterize the molecular spectrum of Brazilian individuals with tuberous sclerosis.