Background: Primary ciliary dyskinesia is a rare genetic disorder caused by insufficient mucociliary clearance leading to chronic airway infections. The diagnostic guideline of the European Respiratory Society primarily recommends an evaluation of the clinical history ( by the PICADAR prediction tool), nasal nitric oxide production rate measurements, high-speed videomicroscopy analysis of ciliary beating and an assessment of ciliary axonemes transmission electron microscopy. Genetic testing can be implemented as a last step.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Nephronophthisis (NPH) comprises a heterogeneous group of inherited renal ciliopathies clinically characterized by progressive kidney failure. So far, definite diagnosis is based on molecular testing only. Here, we studied the feasibility of NPHP1 and NPHP4 immunostaining of nasal epithelial cells to secure and accelerate the diagnosis of NPH.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrimary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is caused by the dysfunction of motile cilia resulting in insufficient mucociliary clearance of the lungs. This study aimed to map novel PCD variants and determine their pathogenicity in PCD patients in Kuwait. Herein, we present five PCD individuals belonging to a cohort of 105 PCD individuals recruited from different hospitals in Kuwait.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Primary ciliary dyskinesia is a genetic disorder caused by aberrant motile cilia function that results in defective ciliary airway clearance and subsequently leads to recurrent airway infections and bronchiectasis. We aimed to determine: how many functional multiciliated airway cells are sufficient to maintain ciliary airway clearance?
Methods: To answer this question we exploited the molecular defects of the X-linked recessive primary ciliary dyskinesia variant caused by pathogenic variants in (), characterised by immotile cilia in affected males. We carefully analysed the clinical phenotype and molecular defect (using immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy) and performed studies (particle tracking in air-liquid interface cultures) and studies (radiolabelled tracer studies) to assess ciliary clearance of respiratory cells from female individuals with heterozygous and male individuals with hemizygous pathogenic variants.