Publications by authors named "Kahrizi K"

Recent advances in next generation sequencing (NGS) have positioned whole exome sequencing (WES) as an efficient first-tier method in genetic diagnosis. However, despite the diagnostic yield of 35%-50% in intellectual disability (ID) many patients still remain undiagnosed due to inherent limitations and bioinformatic short-comings. In this study, we reanalyzed WES data from 159 Iranian families showing recessively inherited ID.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Copy number variations in the SMN1 gene on chromosome 5 are the primary cause of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) disease, characterized by muscle weakness and degeneration due to impaired alpha motor neurons in the spinal cord. To obtain a comprehensive molecular understanding of the SMA, including carriers, silent carriers, and patients in the Iranian population, we analyzed data from 5224 individuals referred to Kariminejad - Najmabadi Pathology & Genetics Center, Tehran, Iran, between 2006 and 2023 using MLPA and quantitative RT-PCR methods. The carrier frequency of SMA was estimated to be 5.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

After is the second most common contributor to autosomal recessive nonsyndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL) worldwide. In this study, we used Exome Sequencing (ES) to present a village with 31 individuals affected by hereditary hearing loss (HHL) in southeastern Iran near the border of Pakistan. The village harbored the known pathogenic missense (NM_000441.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hearing loss (HL) is the most prevalent sensorineural disorders, affecting about one in 1000 newborns. Over half of the cases are attributed to genetic factors; however, due to the extensive clinical and genetic heterogeneity, many cases remain without a conclusive genetic diagnosis. The advent of next-generation sequencing methodologies in recent years has greatly helped unravel the genetic etiology of HL by identifying numerous genes and causative variants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Despite advances in breast cancer research, treatment for metastatic disease remains difficult, highlighting the need for better understanding of tumor progression and invasive behavior.
  • - Researchers focused on super-enhancers (SEs), which control important cancer-related genes, to identify critical regulators in breast cancer cells, leading to the discovery of ThPOK as a significant master regulator.
  • - ThPOK is more prevalent in luminal breast cancer and helps maintain a less invasive epithelial state by inhibiting genes tied to processes like epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), suggesting that targeting ThPOK could be a potential therapeutic approach for limiting metastasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The study of Y-chromosomal variations provides valuable insights into male susceptibility in certain diseases like cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this study, we analyzed paternal lineage in different Iranian ethnic groups, not only to identify developing medical etiology, but also to pave the way for gender-specific targeted strategies and personalized medicine in medical genetic research studies.

Methods: The diversity of eleven Iranian ethnic groups was studied using 27 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) haplotypes from Y-filer® Plus kit.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Intellectual disability (ID) represents a significant health challenge due to its diverse and intricate nature. A multitude of genes play a role in brain development and function, with defects in these genes potentially leading to ID. Considering that many of these genes have yet to be identified, and those identified have only been found in a small number of patients, no complete description of the phenotype created by these genes is available.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been proven to be one of the most powerful diagnostic tools for rare Mendelian disorders. Several studies on the clinical application of NGS in unselected cohorts of Middle Eastern patients have reported a high diagnostic yield of up to 48%, correlated with a high level of consanguinity in these populations. We evaluated the diagnostic utility of NGS-based testing across different clinical indications in 1436 patients from Iran, representing the first study of its kind in this highly consanguineous population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coronary artery disease (CAD), the most prevalent cardiovascular disease, is the leading cause of death worldwide. Heritable factors play a significant role in the pathogenesis of CAD. It has been proposed that approximately one-third of patients with CAD have a positive family history, and individuals with such history are at ~1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4G (CMT4G) was first reported in Balkan Gypsies as a myelinopathy starting with progressive distal lower limb weakness, followed by upper limb involvement and prominent distal sensory impairment later in the patient's life. So far, CMT4G has been only reported in European Roma communities with two founder homozygous variants; g.9712G>C and g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Intellectual disability (ID) is a genetically heterogeneous condition, and so far, 1679 human genes have been identified for this phenotype. Countries with a high rate of parental consanguinity, such as Iran, provide an excellent opportunity to identify the remaining novel ID genes, especially those with an autosomal recessive (AR) mode of inheritance. This study aimed to investigate the most prevalent ID genes identified via next-generation sequencing (NGS) in a large ID cohort at the Genetics Research Center (GRC) of the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Genetic analysis of non-syndromic hearing loss (NSHL) has been challenged due to marked clinical and genetic heterogeneity. Today, advanced next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, such as exome sequencing (ES), have drastically increased the efficacy of gene identification in heterogeneous Mendelian disorders. Here, we present the utility of ES and re-evaluate the phenotypic data for identifying candidate causal variants for previously unexplained progressive moderate to severe NSHL in an extended Iranian family.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Global real-time monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 variants is essential for controlling COVID-19, leading to the development of a Sanger-based platform for variant tracking in low-resource labs.
  • The study utilized nested RT-PCR and Sanger sequencing on 1,028 samples, achieving high concordance with whole genome sequencing for mutation detection and lineage assignment.
  • The new method is effective for tracking variants of concern like Delta and Alpha, making it a viable option for countries with limited resources to monitor SARS-CoV-2 variants efficiently.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Ion channel dysfunction in the brain can lead to impairment of neuronal membranes and generate several neurological diseases, especially neurodevelopmental disorders.

Methods: In this study, we set out to delineate the genotype and phenotype spectrums of 14 Iranian patients from 7 families with intellectual disability (ID) and/or developmental delay (DD) in whom genetic mutations were identified by next-generation sequencing (NGS) in 7 channel-encoding genes: and . Moreover, the data of 340 previously fully reported ID and/or DD cases with a mutation in any of these seven genes were combined with our patients to clarify the genotype and phenotype spectrum in this group.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), one of the common inherited disorders in humans, is characterized by the development and enlargement of renal cysts, often leading to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). In this study, Iranian ADPKD families were subjected to high-throughput DNA sequencing to find potential causative variants facilitating the way toward risk assessment and targeted therapy.

Methods: Our protocol was based on the targeted next generation sequencing (NGS) panel previously developed in our center comprising 12 genes involved in PKD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 in Iran over one year, following two independent viral introductions during the early outbreak phase.
  • Researchers sequenced 319 whole genomes between March 2020 and May 2021 to monitor the circulating viral lineages.
  • Results showed that different SARS-CoV-2 clades dominated various waves of infection, with the Delta variant emerging as a crucial factor in the fifth wave, highlighting significant mutations in key lineages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: To date, over 400 syndromes with hearing impairment have been identified which altogether constitute almost 30% of hereditary hearing loss (HL) cases around the globe. Manifested as complete or partial labyrinthine aplasia (severe malformations of the inner ear structure), type I microtia (smaller outer ear with shortened auricles), and microdontia (small and widely spaced teeth), labyrinthine aplasia, microtia, and microdontia (LAMM) syndrome (OMIM 610706) is an extremely rare autosomal recessive condition caused by bi-allelic mutations in the FGF3 gene.

Methods: Using the whole-exome sequencing (WES) data of the proband, we analyzed a consanguineous Iranian family with three affected members presenting with congenital bilateral HL, type I microtia, and microdontia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Thousands of genetic variants in protein-coding genes have been linked to disease. However, the functional impact of most variants is unknown as they occur within intrinsically disordered protein regions that have poorly defined functions. Intrinsically disordered regions can mediate phase separation and the formation of biomolecular condensates, such as the nucleolus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Protein phosphatase 1 regulatory subunit 35 (PPP1R35) encodes a centrosomal protein required for recruiting microtubule-binding elongation machinery. Several proteins in this centriole biogenesis pathway correspond to established primary microcephaly (MCPH) genes, and multiple model organism studies hypothesize PPP1R35 as a candidate MCPH gene. Here, using exome sequencing (ES) and family-based rare variant analyses, we report a homozygous, frameshifting indel deleting the canonical stop codon in the last exon of PPP1R35 [Chr7: c.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Intellectual disability (ID) is a clinically important disease and a most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder. The etiology and pathogenesis of ID are poorly recognized. Exome sequencing revealed a homozygous missense mutation in the POLR3B gene in a consanguineous family with three Intellectual disability with craniofacial anomalies patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) play pivotal roles in neuronal cell functions by exchanging GDP to GTP nucleotide and activation of GTPases. We aimed to determine the genotype and phenotype spectrum of GEF mutations by collecting data from a large Iranian cohort with intellectual disability (ID) and/or developmental delay (DD).

Methods: We collected data from nine families with 20 patients extracted from Iranian cohort of 640 families with ID and/or DD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Bi-allelic pathogenic variants in the ZBTB11 gene are linked to a disorder known as MRT69, characterized by varying levels of brain atrophy and specific biochemical issues.
  • Researchers identified novel variants in five patients from three families, which led to an examination of how ZBTB11 functions at a cellular level.
  • The study finds that mutated ZBTB11 significantly reduces its ability to bind to genes related to mitochondrial function and RNA processing, resulting in the dysregulation of these processes and contributing to the neurological symptoms and metabolic disorders observed in affected individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hearing loss (HL) is an etiologically heterogeneous disorder that affects around 5% of the world's population. There has been an exponential increase in the identification of genes and variants responsible for hereditary HL over recent years. Iran, a country located in the Middle East, has a high prevalence of consanguineous marriages, so heterogeneous diseases such as HL are more common.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Activating Signal Cointegrator 1 Complex, Subunit 3 (ASCC3) is part of the four-part ASC-1 transcriptional cointegrator complex. This complex includes ASCC1 (associated with spinal muscular atrophy with congenital bone fractures 2), TRIP4 (associated with spinal muscular atrophy with congenital bone fractures 1), and ASCC2 (not yet associated with human disease.) encodes a DNA helicase responsible for generating single-stranded DNA as part of the DNA damage response.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF