Publications by authors named "Petra Pennekamp"

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 PDF

Background: 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 PDF

Primary 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 PDF

Background: 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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare genetic disorder that affects ciliary function, leading to airway clearance issues and sometimes organ positioning defects (laterality defects), with a study conducted across 19 countries to analyze gene defects and their clinical implications.
  • The study involved 1236 individuals with a variety of pathogenic DNA variants and found significant geographical differences in PCD genotypes, with varying rates of laterality defects and distinct genetic characteristics linked to different countries.
  • Results revealed that individuals with PCD often have lower lung function (measured by forced expiratory volume) and that the presence of certain genetic variants can correlate with more severe clinical outcomes, highlighting the importance of genetic understanding in diagnosing
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a congenital thoracic disorder caused by dysfunction of motile cilia, resulting in insufficient mucociliary clearance of the lungs. The overall aim of this study is to identify causative defective genes in PCD-affected individuals in the Kuwaiti population.

Methods: A cohort of multiple consanguineous PCD families was identified from Kuwaiti patients and genomic DNA from the family members was isolated using standard procedures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare genetic disorder affecting cilia function and is caused by mutations in over 50 different genes, leading to diverse symptoms and challenges in diagnosis.
  • * The condition is often underdiagnosed due to its varying phenotypes and the complexity of diagnosis, necessitating a comprehensive approach that includes medical history, clinical evaluation, imaging, and genetic testing.
  • * Continued research and better understanding of PCD are essential for improving diagnosis rates and developing effective treatments for affected individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is caused by dysfunction of motile cilia resulting in insufficient mucociliary clearance of the lungs. The overall aim of this study is to identify disease causing genetic variants for PCD patients in the Kuwaiti population. A cohort of multiple consanguineous PCD families was identified from Kuwaiti patients and genomic DNA from the family members was analysed for variant screening.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Nephronophthisis (NPH) comprises a group of rare disorders accounting for up to 10% of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) in children. Prediction of kidney prognosis poses a major challenge. We assessed differences in kidney survival, impact of variant type, and the association of clinical characteristics with declining kidney function.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare genetic disorder characterised by impaired mucociliary clearance leading to irreversible lung damage. In contrast to other rare lung diseases like cystic fibrosis (CF), there are only few clinical trials and limited evidence-based treatments. Management is mainly based on expert opinions and treatment is challenging due to a wide range of clinical manifestations and disease severity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The ERN-LUNG Population Registry is a new European-wide collection of patients with rare lung diseases, allowing patients to register online in the registry. Medical experts can recruit patients in the registry for disease-specific registries and care options. The Population Registry was implemented on the basis of the open source software OSSE and extended by functions for the self-registration of patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Macroautophagy/autophagy is a self-degradative process necessary for cells to maintain their energy balance during development and in response to nutrient deprivation. Autophagic processes are tightly regulated and have been found to be dysfunctional in several pathologies. Increasing experimental evidence points to the existence of an interplay between autophagy and cilia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a heterogeneous, multisystem disorder characterized by defective ciliary beating. Diagnostic guidelines of the American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society recommend measurement of nasal nitric oxide (nNO) for PCD diagnosis. Several studies demonstrated low nNO production rates in PCD individuals, but underlying causes remain elusive.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rare lung diseases affect 1.5-3 million people in Europe while causing bad prognosis or early deaths for patients. The European Reference Network for Respiratory Diseases (ERN-Lung) is a patient centric network, funded by the European Union (EU).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Axonemal protein complexes, such as outer (ODA) and inner (IDA) dynein arms, are responsible for the generation and regulation of flagellar and ciliary beating. Studies in various ciliated model organisms have shown that axonemal dynein arms are first assembled in the cell cytoplasm and then delivered into axonemes during ciliogenesis. In humans, mutations in genes encoding for factors involved in this process cause structural and functional defects of motile cilia in various organs such as the airways and result in the hereditary disorder primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Motile cilia line the efferent ducts of the mammalian male reproductive tract. Several recent mouse studies have demonstrated that a reduced generation of multiple motile cilia in efferent ducts is associated with obstructive oligozoospermia and fertility issues. However, the sole impact of efferent duct cilia dysmotility on male infertility has not been studied so far either in mice or human.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Axonemal dynein ATPases direct ciliary and flagellar beating via adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis. The modulatory effect of adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) on flagellar beating is not fully understood. Here, we describe a deficiency of cilia and flagella associated protein 45 (CFAP45) in humans and mice that presents a motile ciliopathy featuring situs inversus totalis and asthenospermia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Hereditary cystic kidney diseases such as nephronophthisis, polycystic kidney disease and Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) are caused by a dysfunction of primary cilia. Cilia are involved in a variety of cellular functions and perceptions, with one of them being the sense of smell. Hyposmia is a typical feature found in patients with BBS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare inherited disease characterised by malfunctioning cilia leading to a heterogeneous clinical phenotype with many organ systems affected. There is a lack of data on clinical presentation, prognosis and effectiveness of treatments, making it mandatory to improve the scientific evidence base. This article reviews the data resources that are available in Europe for clinical and epidemiological research in PCD, namely established national PCD registries and national cohort studies, plus two large collaborative efforts (the international PCD (iPCD) Cohort and the International PCD Registry), and discusses their strengths, limitations and perspectives.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

- Nearly one in 100 live births presents with congenital heart defects (CHD). CHD are frequently associated with laterality defects, such as (SIT), a mirrored positioning of internal organs. Body laterality is established by a complex process: monocilia at the embryonic left-right organizer (LRO) facilitate both the generation and sensing of a leftward fluid flow.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hydrocephalus is one of the most prevalent form of developmental central nervous system (CNS) malformations. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow depends on both heartbeat and body movement. Furthermore, it has been shown that CSF flow within and across brain ventricles depends on cilia motility of the ependymal cells lining the brain ventricles, which play a crucial role to maintain patency of the narrow sites of CSF passage during brain formation in mice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a genetically heterogeneous chronic destructive airway disease. PCD is traditionally diagnosed by nasal nitric oxide measurement, analysis of ciliary beating, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and/or genetic testing. In most genetic PCD variants, laterality defects can occur.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

About 1% of all newborns are affected by congenital heart disease (CHD). Recent findings identify aberrantly functioning cilia as a possible source for CHD. Faulty cilia also prevent the development of proper left-right asymmetry and cause heterotaxy, the incorrect placement of visceral organs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The clinical spectrum of ciliopathies affecting motile cilia spans impaired mucociliary clearance in the respiratory system, laterality defects including heart malformations, infertility and hydrocephalus. Using linkage analysis and whole exome sequencing, we identified two recessive loss-of-function MNS1 mutations in five individuals from four consanguineous families: 1) a homozygous nonsense mutation p.Arg242* in four males with laterality defects and infertility and 2) a homozygous nonsense mutation p.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF