Publications by authors named "Kireshnee Naidu"

Introduction: Structural variants (SVs) of the nebulin gene ( ), including intragenic duplications, deletions, and copy number variation of the triplicate region, are an established cause of recessively inherited nemaline myopathies and related neuromuscular disorders. Large deletions have been shown to cause dominantly inherited distal myopathies. Here we provide an overview of 35 families with muscle disorders caused by such SVs in .

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Background: Multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD) is an autosomal recessive disorder resulting from pathogenic variants in three distinct genes, with most of the variants occurring in the electron transfer flavoprotein-ubiquinone oxidoreductase gene (ETFDH). Recent evidence of potential founder variants for MADD in the South African (SA) population, initiated this extensive investigation. As part of the International Centre for Genomic Medicine in Neuromuscular Diseases study, we recruited a cohort of patients diagnosed with MADD from academic medical centres across SA over a three-year period.

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Article Synopsis
  • In South Africa, there is a lack of diagnostic tools for inherited neuromuscular diseases (NMD), prompting a study using next-generation sequencing to identify genetic causes in individuals with genetic neuropathy and related conditions.
  • The research involved sequencing 61 individuals, with findings showing that about 44% of genetic neuropathy cases and 48% of hereditary spastic paraplegia cases could be resolved, particularly among those with African-genetic ancestry.
  • The study highlights that while diagnostic success rates are similar to global averages, the types of mutations causing these diseases in South Africans are markedly different from those typically seen in populations from the Global North.
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Neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) affect ∼15 million people globally. In high income settings DNA-based diagnosis has transformed care pathways and led to gene-specific therapies. However, most affected families are in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs) with limited access to DNA-based diagnosis.

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