Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) is a frequent differential diagnostic consideration in patients with rapidly progressive dementia (RPD). Fortunately, in the last 2 decades there has been substantial cumulative improvements in sCJD biomarkers, particularly those based on imaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) interrogation. Brain MRI is a very frequently employed investigation in patients with RPD, often utilized quite early in the evaluation and thereby offering a potentially key role in prompting initial concerns for sCJD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSingle nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) gene, an inhibitor of T-cell priming, are associated with auto and alloimmunity. Studies implied a role for these SNPs as surrogate markers for immunotherapy-outcome in patients with melanoma. However, no predictive SNPs are defined to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDue to substantial improvements in read accuracy, third-generation long-read sequencing holds great potential in blood group diagnostics, particularly in cases where traditional genotyping or sequencing techniques, primarily targeting exons, fail to explain serological phenotypes. In this study, we employed Oxford Nanopore sequencing to resolve all genotype-phenotype discrepancies in the Kidd blood group system (JK, encoded by ) observed over seven years of routine high-throughput donor genotyping using a mass spectrometry-based platform at the Blood Transfusion Service, Zurich. Discrepant results from standard serological typing and donor genotyping were confirmed using commercial PCR-SSP kits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Mixed-field agglutination in ABO phenotyping (A, B) has been linked to genetically different blood cell populations such as in chimerism, or to rare variants in either ABO exon 7 or regulatory regions. Clarification of such cases is challenging and would greatly benefit from sequencing technologies that allow resolving full-gene haplotypes at high resolution.
Materials And Methods: We used long-read sequencing by Oxford Nanopore Technologies to sequence the entire ABO gene, amplified in two overlapping long-range PCR fragments, in a blood donor presented with AB phenotype.