Publications by authors named "Astrid Weber"

The RUNT-related transcription factor RUNX2 plays a critical role in osteoblast differentiation, and alterations to gene dosage cause distinct craniofacial anomalies. Uniquely amongst the RUNT-related family, vertebrate RUNX2 encodes a polyglutamine/polyalanine repeat (Gln-Glu-Ala in humans), with the length of the polyalanine component completely conserved in great apes. Surprisingly, a frequent 6-amino acid deletion polymorphism, p.

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Saethre-Chotzen syndrome (SCS) is a syndromic craniosynostosis with pathogenic variants in the TWIST1 gene showing a broad phenotypic spectrum. Controversies exist in the literature regarding surgical management with single one-stage versus patient-tailored surgery and the related reoperation rate for intracranial hypertension of up to 42%. At our center, SCS patients are offered patient-tailored surgery with single-stage fronto-orbital advancement and remodeling or fronto-orbital advancement and remodeling and posterior distraction in an individually determined order.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the role of the PRRX1 gene in craniosynostosis, focusing on how certain variants (missense and loss-of-function) affect craniofacial development, with previous research linking PRRX1 to preosteogenic cells in cranial sutures.
  • Researchers used sequencing methods to identify rare variants in PRRX1 among patients suffering from craniosynostosis, discovering a total of 18 individuals with potential pathogenic variants and noting abnormal behavior of mutant proteins through immunofluorescence analyses.
  • The findings highlight that PRRX1 plays a significant role in cranial suture development, and the presence of pathogenic variants is frequently inherited from non-affected relatives,
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Craniosynostosis, the premature fusion of the cranial sutures, affects ~1 in 2000 children. Although many patients with a genetically determined cause harbor a variant in one of just seven genes or have a chromosomal abnormality, over 60 genes are known to be recurrently mutated, thus comprising a long tail of rarer diagnoses. Genome sequencing for the diagnosis of rare diseases is increasingly used in clinical settings, but analysis of the data is labor intensive and involves a trade-off between achieving high sensitivity or high precision.

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Background: When capacity-based mental health legislation was introduced in Norway in 2017, there was concern about the consequences of change in the law for patients'carer whose community treatment order was revoked as a result of being assessed as having capacity to consent. The concern was that the lack of a community treatment order would increase carers' responsibilities in an already challenging life situation. The aim of this study is to explore carers' experiences of how their responsibility and daily life were affected after the patient's community treatment order was revoked based on capacity to consent.

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Background: Norway introduced capacity-based legislation in mental healthcare on 1 September 2017 with the aim of increasing patient autonomy and legal protection and reducing the use of coercion. The new legislation was expected to be particularly important for patients under community treatment orders (CTOs).

Aims: To explore health professionals' experiences of how capacity-based legislation affects healthcare services for patients whose compulsory treatment order was revoked as a result of being assessed as having capacity to consent.

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Background: Capacity-based mental health legislation was introduced in Norway on 1 September 2017. The aim was to increase the autonomy of patients with severe mental illness and to bring mental health care in line with human rights.  The aim of this study is to explore patient experiences of how far the new legislation has enabled them to be involved in decisions on their treatment after they were assessed as capable of giving consent and had their community treatment order (CTO) revoked due to the change in the legislation.

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The heterogeneous family of complexes comprising Polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1) is instrumental for establishing facultative heterochromatin that is repressive to transcription. However, two PRC1 species, ncPRC1.3 and ncPRC1.

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Purpose: Genome sequencing (GS) for diagnosis of rare genetic disease is being introduced into the clinic, but the complexity of the data poses challenges for developing pipelines with high diagnostic sensitivity. We evaluated the performance of the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project (100kGP) panel-based pipelines, using craniosynostosis as a test disease.

Methods: GS data from 114 probands with craniosynostosis and their relatives (314 samples), negative on routine genetic testing, were scrutinized by a specialized research team, and diagnoses compared with those made by 100kGP.

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Purpose: Enrichment of heterozygous missense and truncating SMAD6 variants was previously reported in nonsyndromic sagittal and metopic synostosis, and interaction of SMAD6 variants with a common polymorphism nearBMP2 (rs1884302) was proposed to contribute to inconsistent penetrance. We determined the occurrence of SMAD6 variants in all types of craniosynostosis, evaluated the impact of different missense variants on SMAD6 function, and tested independently whether rs1884302 genotype significantly modifies the phenotype.

Methods: We performed resequencing of SMAD6 in 795 unsolved patients with any type of craniosynostosis and genotyped rs1884302 in SMAD6-positive individuals and relatives.

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Our previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) for sagittal nonsyndromic craniosynostosis (sNCS) provided important insights into the genetics of midline CS. In this study, we performed a GWAS for a second midline NCS, metopic NCS (mNCS), using 215 non-Hispanic white case-parent triads. We identified six variants with genome-wide significance (P ≤ 5 × 10): rs781716 (P = 4.

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Noonan syndrome (NS) is characterised by distinctive facial features, heart defects, variable degrees of intellectual disability and other phenotypic manifestations. Although the mode of inheritance is typically dominant, recent studies indicate LZTR1 may be associated with both dominant and recessive forms. Seeking to describe the phenotypic characteristics of LZTR1-associated NS, we searched for likely pathogenic variants using two approaches.

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Background: Fetal structural anomalies, which are detected by ultrasonography, have a range of genetic causes, including chromosomal aneuploidy, copy number variations (CNVs; which are detectable by chromosomal microarrays), and pathogenic sequence variants in developmental genes. Testing for aneuploidy and CNVs is routine during the investigation of fetal structural anomalies, but there is little information on the clinical usefulness of genome-wide next-generation sequencing in the prenatal setting. We therefore aimed to evaluate the proportion of fetuses with structural abnormalities that had identifiable variants in genes associated with developmental disorders when assessed with whole-exome sequencing (WES).

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De novo germline mutations in GNB1 have been associated with a neurodevelopmental phenotype. To date, 28 patients with variants classified as pathogenic have been reported. We add 18 patients with de novo mutations to this cohort, including a patient with mosaicism for a GNB1 mutation who presented with a milder phenotype.

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Trio based whole exome sequencing via the Deciphering Developmental Disorders (DDD) study has identified three individuals with de novo frameshift variants in the Suppressor of Variegation, Enhancer of Zeste, and Trithorax (SET) gene. Variants in the SET gene have not previously been recognised to be associated with human developmental disorders. Here we report detailed phenotypic information and propose that SET is a new Intellectual Disability/Developmental Delay (ID/DD) gene.

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Variants affecting the function of different subunits of the BAF chromatin-remodelling complex lead to various neurodevelopmental syndromes, including Coffin-Siris syndrome. Furthermore, variants in proteins containing PHD fingers, motifs recognizing specific histone tail modifications, have been associated with several neurological and developmental-delay disorders. Here, we report eight heterozygous de novo variants (one frameshift, two splice site, and five missense) in the gene encoding the BAF complex subunit double plant homeodomain finger 2 (DPF2).

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Multiple cytokines, including interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-11, IL-27, oncostatin M (OSM), and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), signal via the common GP130 cytokine receptor subunit. In this study, we describe a patient with a homozygous mutation of (encoding GP130 p.N404Y) who presented with recurrent infections, eczema, bronchiectasis, high IgE, eosinophilia, defective B cell memory, and an impaired acute-phase response, as well as skeletal abnormalities including craniosynostosis.

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Objective: Mutations in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein () gene are associated with pituitary adenoma, acromegaly and gigantism. Identical alleles in unrelated pedigrees could be inherited from a common ancestor or result from recurrent mutation events.

Design And Methods: Observational, inferential and experimental study, including: mutation testing; reconstruction of 14 -region (8.

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16q24 deletion involving the ANKRD11 gene, ranging from 137 kb to 2 Mb, have been associated with a microdeletion syndrome characterized by variable cognitive impairment, autism spectrum disorder, facial dysmorphisms with dental anomalies, brain abnormalities essentially affecting the corpus callosum and short stature. On the other hand, patients carrying either deletions encompassing solely ANKRD11 or its loss-of-function variants were reported in association with the KBG syndrome, characterized by a very similar phenotype, including mild-to-moderate intellectual disability, short stature and macrodontia of upper incisors, with inter and intrafamilial variability. To assess whether the haploinsufficiency of ANKRD11-flanking genes, such as ZFPM1, CDH15 and ZNF778, contributed to either the severity of the neurological impairment or was associated with other clinical features, we collected 12 new cases with a 16q24.

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Twist transcription factors, members of the basic helix-loop-helix family, play crucial roles in mesoderm development in all animals. Humans have two paralogous genes, TWIST1 and TWIST2, and mutations in each gene have been identified in specific craniofacial disorders. Here, we describe a new clinical entity, Sweeney-Cox syndrome, associated with distinct de novo amino acid substitutions (p.

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Background: Craniosynostosis, the premature fusion of one or more cranial sutures, occurs in ∼1 in 2250 births, either in isolation or as part of a syndrome. Mutations in at least 57 genes have been associated with craniosynostosis, but only a minority of these are included in routine laboratory genetic testing.

Methods: We used exome or whole genome sequencing to seek a genetic cause in a cohort of 40 subjects with craniosynostosis, selected by clinical or molecular geneticists as being high-priority cases, and in whom prior clinically driven genetic testing had been negative.

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Unlabelled: Familial renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is genetically heterogeneous and may be caused by mutations in multiple genes, including VHL, MET, SDHB, FH, FLCN, PTEN, and BAP1. However, most individuals with inherited RCC do not have a detectable germline mutation. To identify novel inherited RCC genes, we undertook exome resequencing studies in a familial RCC kindred and identified a CDKN2B nonsense mutation that segregated with familial RCC status.

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