Delivery of an at-home transcranial direct current stimulation intervention to mitigate pain in patients with end-stage kidney disease receiving hemodialysis (ESKD/HD).

Background: Poorly controlled pain remains a problem for many patients with end-stage kidney disease requiring hemodialysis (ESKD/HD) and customary approaches to pain management (e.g., opioids, non-steroidals) confer substantial risk.

Identification of 526 conserved metazoan genetic innovations exposes a new role for cofactor E-like in neuronal microtubule homeostasis.

The evolution of metazoans from their choanoflagellate-like unicellular ancestor coincided with the acquisition of novel biological functions to support a multicellular lifestyle, and eventually, the unique cellular and physiological demands of differentiated cell types such as those forming the nervous, muscle and immune systems. In an effort to understand the molecular underpinnings of such metazoan innovations, we carried out a comparative genomics analysis for genes found exclusively in, and widely conserved across, metazoans. Using this approach, we identified a set of 526 core metazoan-specific genes (the 'metazoanome'), approximately 10% of which are largely uncharacterized, 16% of which are associated with known human disease, and 66% of which are conserved in Trichoplax adhaerens, a basal metazoan lacking neurons and other specialized cell types.

UMD-predictor, a new prediction tool for nucleotide substitution pathogenicity -- application to four genes: FBN1, FBN2, TGFBR1, and TGFBR2.

Approximately half of gene lesions responsible for human inherited diseases are due to an amino acid substitution, showing that this mutational mechanism plays a large role in diseases. Distinguishing neutral sequence variations from those responsible for the phenotype is of major interest in human genetics. Because in vitro validation of mutations is not always possible in diagnostic settings, indirect arguments must be accumulated to define whether a missense variation is causative.

The p.Asp216His TOR1A allele effect is not found in the French population.

DYT1 dystonia are one of the exceptions in human genetics with its unique and recurrent mutation (c.907delGAG). In this rare movement disorder, the mutation is associated with incomplete penetrance as well as great clinical variability, making this disease a benchmark to search for genetic modifiers.

The FBN2 gene: new mutations, locus-specific database (Universal Mutation Database FBN2), and genotype-phenotype correlations.

Congenital contractural arachnodactyly (CCA) is an extremely rare disease, due to mutations in the FBN2 gene encoding fibrillin-2. Another member of the fibrillin family, the FBN1 gene, is involved in a broad phenotypic continuum of connective-tissue disorders including Marfan syndrome. Identifying not only what is in common but also what differentiates these two proteins should enable us to better comprehend their respective functions and better understand the multitude of diseases in which these two genes are involved.

A new locus-specific database (LSDB) for mutations in the TGFBR2 gene: UMD-TGFBR2.

The implication of mutations in the TGFBR2 gene, known to be involved in cancers, in Marfan syndrome (MFS) and later in Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) and Familial Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms and Dissections (TAAD2) gives a new example of the complexity of one gene involved in multiple diseases. To date, known TGFBR2 mutations are not disease-specific and many mutations have to be accumulated before genotype-phenotype relationships emerge. To facilitate mutational analysis of the TGFBR2 gene, a locus-specific database has been set up with the Universal Mutation Database (UMD) software.

First determination of the incidence of the unique TOR1A gene mutation, c.907delGAG, in a Mediterranean population.

The c.907delGAG mutation in the TOR1A gene (also named DYT1) is the most common cause of early-onset primary dystonia. The mutation frequency and prevalence have so far been only estimated from rare clinical epidemiological reports in some populations.

Nuclear localization of HTLV-I bZIP factor (HBZ) is mediated by three distinct motifs.

The genome of the human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) codes for a basic leucine zipper protein, HBZ, capable of repressing JUN activity and viral transcription. Transient expression in mammalian cells showed that HBZ was targeted to the nucleus, where it accumulated in nuclear speckles. By using a complementary set of deletion mutants, we report here that the nuclear targeting of HBZ is mediated by three distinct nuclear localization signals and that at least two are necessary for the translocation of HBZ to the nucleus.