26例胎儿鼻骨发育异常的产前诊断结果分析

目的探讨胎儿鼻骨缺失和发育不良的产前诊断、遗传咨询、临床处理路径。方法2016年12月1日至2017年12月1日,在中国医学科学院北京协和医院产检的孕妇中,发现鼻骨发育异常26例,根据是否合并其他超声异常,分为孤立性和非孤立性鼻骨发育异常两组。所有病例均行产前染色体核型分析及染色体微阵列分析(chromosomal microarray analysis,CMA),回顾性分析两组病例的临床资料、产前遗传学诊断结果和妊娠结局。结果孤立性鼻骨缺失或发育不良共18例,其中14例染色体核型分析及CMA结果未见异常,另4例CMA结果为临床意义不明的拷贝数变异(variants of unknown significance,VUS),偏良性,均继续妊娠,随访新生儿均正常。非孤立性鼻骨缺失或发育不良共8例,1例为21三体,2例为18三体,2例CMA结果为致病性拷贝数变异(copy number variation,CNV)。3例染色体核型分析和CMA均未见异常,其中1例进一步行全外显子测序(whole exome sequencing,WES)分析,提示胎儿为RPGRIP1L基因的复合杂合突变,诊断为Meckel综合征。8例非孤立性鼻骨缺失或发育不良的病例中,7例孕妇选择终止妊娠,另1例双胎之一超声异常,畸形新生儿出生后即夭折。结论对于产前超声发现鼻骨发育异常的病例,无论其是否合并其他超声异常,均建议行包括CMA在内的产前遗传学诊断,必要时进一步行WES分析。     

基因组时代产前诊断面临的机遇和挑战

        自20世纪70年代开始，染色体核型分析技术作为诊断胎儿染色体异常的金标准已使用多年，但该技术存在分辨率较低（5~10Mb）、培养周期长、检测通量低及有培养失败风险等局限性。随后，靶向诊断技术（FISH、QF-PCR、MLPA）的出现，大大缩短了检测时间，与染色体核型技术联合应用，可早期诊断常见的胎儿染色体异常。此外，Sanger测序作为基因变异检测的金标准，可用于明确致病的单基因疾病的产前诊断。然而，以上技术均无法实现在全基因组范围内进行快速、高分辨率地诊断胎儿致病性变异。 浏览更多请关注微信公众号及当期杂志。     

Myopathy associated with homozygous PYROXD1 pathogenic variants detected by genome sequencing

Biallelic pathogenic variants in the gene PYROXD1 have recently been described to cause early-onset autosomal recessive myopathy. Myopathy associated with PYROXD1 pathogenic variants is rare and reported in only 17 individuals. Known pathogenic variants in PYROXD1 include missense, insertion and essential splice-site variants. Here we describe a consanguineous family of individuals affected with late-onset myopathy and homozygous PYROXD1 missense variants (NM_024854.5:c.464A>G [p.Asn155Ser]) expanding our understanding of the possible disease phenotypes of PYROXD1-associated myopathy.     

Altered gut microbiota and mucosal immunity in patients with schizophrenia

Evidence shows that gut microbiota may play important roles in schizophrenia pathogenesis via the “gut-brain” axis, but the mechanisms remain unclear. Here, eighty-four patients with schizophrenia and 84 sex- and age-matched healthy controls were enrolled. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing and 16S rRNA sequencing were performed, and the gut microbiota-associated epitopes (MEs) were predicted, which, together with IgA content, were used to determine the gut microbiota composition associated with gut immune status. Patients with schizophrenia had significantly reduced gut microbiota richnesses compared with those of the healthy controls, and the gut microbiota compositions clearly distinguished the patients with schizophrenia from the healthy controls. Based on two-stage metagenomic-wide association studies, nineteen gut microbiota taxonomies were associated with schizophrenia, and the microbial dysbiosis (MD) index was calculated based on the abundance of differential taxonomies. We found that MD index was positively correlated with MEs diversity and gut IgA levels, and negatively correlated with gut microbiota richness. Glutamate synthase (GOGAT) was more active in the guts of patients with schizophrenia than in those of healthy controls, and high GOGAT activity was associated with altered gut microbiota taxonomies associated with gut IgA levels. Our results may imply a role of the microbiome in the etiology of schizophrenia and contribute to the development of microbiome targeted interventions for schizophrenia.     

Very late-onset limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2D: A milder form with a normal muscle biopsy

Sarcoglycanopathies are a genetically heterogeneous group of autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD) caused by mutations in sarcoglycan genes. We report a Portuguese patient with a very late-onset LGMD phenotype, whose muscle biopsy and immunostaining, in particular for α-sarcoglycan, were unrevealing. Muscle MRI showed a predominant, bilateral and symmetric involvement of the tight muscles and also, to a lesser extent, of the posterior compartment of lower legs muscles. Next generation sequencing (NGS) revealed a known homozygous c.850C > T (p.Arg284Cys) mutation in SGCA gene. Milder forms of α-sarcoglycanopathies could be a challenging diagnosis; particularly if muscle histopathology and α-sarcoglycan immunohistochemistry are unhelpful. NGS plays a crucial role not only for aiding in the establishment of a definite diagnosis, but also for expanding clinical presentations.     

First report of Mortierella wolfii causing fungal keratitis from a tertiary eye hospital in India

A young 33 year old male presented with non-resolving corneal infiltrate for 2 month duration in the right eye. KOH/ Calcoflour wet mount revealed sparsely septate fungal hyphae. Post therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty 3 doses of intracameral voriconazole(100μg/0.1ml) was administered suspecting recurrence. Fungal culture revealed non sporulating mould on SDA. PCR based DNA sequencing targeting the ITS region identified the fungal isolate as Mortierella wolfii (M. wolfii) belonging to zygomycetes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of human fungal keratitis caused by M. wolfii.     

Characteristics of globus pallidus internus local field potentials in generalized dystonia patients with TWNK mutation

ObjectiveWe focused on a rare gene mutation causing dystonia in two siblings who received globus pallidus internus deep brain stimulation (GPi-DBS). The aim was to characterize the relationship between neuronal activity patterns and clinical syndromes.MethodsWhole exome sequencing was applied to identify the TWNK (previous symbol C10orf2) mutation; Two siblings with TWNK mutation presented as generalized dystonia with rigidity and bradykinesia; four other sporadic generalized dystonia patients underwent GPi-DBS and local field potentials (LFPs) were recorded. Oscillatory activities were illustrated with power spectra and temporal dynamics measured by the Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC).ResultsNormalized power spectra of GPi LFPs differed between patients with TWNK mutation and dystonia over the low beta bands. Patients with TWNK mutation had higher low beta power (15–27 Hz, unpaired t-test, corrected P < 0.0022) and lower LZC (15–27 Hz, unpaired t-test, P < 0.01) than other patients with generalized dystonia. On the other hand, the TWNK mutation patients showed decreased low frequency and beta oscillation in the GPi after DBS, as well as improved movement performance.ConclusionThe LFPs were different in TWNK mutation dystonia siblings than other patients with generalized dystonia, which indicate the abnormal LFPs were related to symptoms rather than specific disease. In addition, the inhibited effect on oscillations also provided a potential evidence for DBS treatment on rare movement disorders.SignificanceThis study could potentially aid in the future development of adaptive DBS via rare disease LFPs comparison.     

Tracking myeloma tumor DNA in peripheral blood

Over the past years, the emergence of liquid biopsy technologies has dramatically expanded our ability to assess multiple myeloma without the need for invasive sampling. Interrogation of cell-free DNA from the peripheral blood recapitulates the mutational landscape at excellent concordance with matching bone marrow aspirates. It can quantify disease burden and identify previously undetected resistance mechanisms which may inform clinical management in real-time. The convenience of sample acquisition and storage provides strong procedural benefits over currently available testing. Further investigations will have to define the role of cell-free DNA as a diagnostic measure by determining clinically relevant tumor thresholds in comparison to existing routine parameters. This review presents an overview of currently available assays and discusses the clinical value, potential and limitations of cell-free DNA technologies for the assessment of this challenging disease.