Publications by authors named "Asma Chikhaoui"

Cockayne syndrome (CS) is a segmental progeroid syndrome characterized by defects in the DNA excision repair pathway, predisposing to neurodegenerative manifestations. It is a rare genetic disorder and an interesting model for studying premature aging. Oxidative stress and autophagy play an important role in the aging process.

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Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT) is a rare multisystemic neurodegenerative disease caused by biallelic mutations in the ATM gene. Few clinical studies on AT disease have been conducted in Tunisia, however, the mutational landscape is still undefined. Our aim is to determine the clinical and genetic spectrum of AT Tunisian patients and to explore the potential underlying mechanism of variant pathogenicity.

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Cockayne syndrome (CS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder that affects the DNA repair process. It is a progeroid syndrome predisposing patients to accelerated aging and to increased susceptibility to respiratory infections. Here, we studied the immune status of CS patients to determine potential biomarkers associated with pathological aging.

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Article Synopsis
  • Spondylocostal dysostosis is a rare genetic disorder linked to mutations in specific genes and can manifest as spondylospinal thoracic dysostosis, which is characterized by spinal and rib defects along with multiple pterygia.
  • Whole exome sequencing (WES) and Sanger sequencing were used to investigate the genetic causes in an 18-month-old girl diagnosed with this syndrome.
  • The study identified a particular genetic variant and potential modifier genes that could influence the condition, suggesting that further research with larger groups is needed for confirmation.
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Research in normal tissue radiobiology is in continuous progress to assess cellular response following ionizing radiation exposure especially linked to carcinogenesis risk. This was observed among patients with a history of radiotherapy of the scalp for ringworm who developed basal cell carcinoma (BCC). However, the involved mechanisms remain largely undefined.

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Escobar syndrome is a rare, autosomal recessive disorder that affects the musculoskeletal system and the skin. Mutations in the and genes are associated with this pathology. In this study, we conducted a clinical and genetic investigation of five patients and also explored via in silico and gene expression analysis their phenotypic variability.

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Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a DNA repair disease that predisposes to early skin cancers as cutaneous melanoma. Melanoma microenvironment contains inflammatory mediators, which would be interesting biomarkers for the prognosis or for the identification of novel therapeutic targets. We used a PCR array to evaluate the transcriptional pattern of 84 inflammatory genes in melanoma tumors obtained from XP patients (XP-Mel) and in sporadic melanoma (SP-Mel) compared to healthy skin.

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Background: Cockayne syndrome (CS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in ERCC6/CSB or ERCC8/CSA that participate in the transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair (TC-NER) of UV-induced DNA damage. CS patients display a large heterogeneity of clinical symptoms and severities, the reason of which is not fully understood, and that cannot be anticipated in the diagnostic phase. In addition, little data is available for affected siblings, and this disease is largely undiagnosed in North Africa.

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Cockayne syndrome (CS) is a rare disease caused by mutations in / or /. We report here the clinical, genetic, and functional analyses of three unrelated patients mutated in / with a severe phenotype. After clinical examination, two patients were investigated via next generation sequencing, targeting seventeen Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) genes.

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Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) is a rare genetic disorder affecting the nucleotide excision repair system (NER). It is characterized by an extreme sensitivity to sunlight that induces cutaneous disorders such as severe sunburn, freckling and cancers. In Tunisia, six complementation groups have been already identified.

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Horizontal Gaze Palsy with Progressive Scoliosis (HGPPS) is a rare autosomal recessive congenital disorder characterized by the absence of conjugate horizontal eye movements, and progressive debilitating scoliosis during childhood and adolescence. HGPPS is associated with mutations of the gene. In this study, the objective is to identify pathogenic variants in a cohort of Tunisian patients with HGPPS and to further define genotype-phenotype correlations.

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Gut microbiota plays an important role in the regulation of the immune system and host's metabolism. We aimed to characterize the gut microbiota of Tunisian participants with and without diabetes.We enrolled ten participants with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), ten patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and 11 subjects without diabetes.

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Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder due to a defect in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) DNA repair pathway, characterized by severe sunburn development of freckles, premature skin aging, and susceptibility to develop cancers at an average age of eight. XP is an example of accelerated photo-aging. It is a genetically and clinically heterogeneous disease.

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