Publications by authors named "Sarasin A"

Cockayne syndrome (CS) and UV-sensitive syndrome (UVSS) are rare genetic disorders caused by mutation of the DNA repair and multifunctional CSA or CSB protein, but only CS patients display a progeroid and neurodegenerative phenotype, providing a unique conceptual and experimental paradigm. As DNA methylation (DNAm) remodelling is a major ageing marker, we performed genome-wide analysis of DNAm of fibroblasts from healthy, UVSS and CS individuals. Differential analysis highlighted a CS-specific epigenomic signature (progeroid-related; not present in UVSS) enriched in three categories: developmental transcription factors, ion/neurotransmitter membrane transporters and synaptic neuro-developmental genes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a group of rare hereditary disorders with highly increased risk of skin tumors due to defective DNA repair. Recently we reported 34-fold increased risk of internal tumors in XP patients in comparison with general population. The molecular data and clinical practice on the internal tumors treatment in XP patients is limited and scarcely represented in the medical literature.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by a high incidence of skin cancers. These patients are deficient in nucleotide excision repair caused by mutations in one of the 7 XP genes.

Methods: We diagnosed 181 XP patients using UV-induced DNA repair measurements and/or DNA sequencing from 1982 to 2022 in France.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Xeroderma pigmentosum variant (XP-V) is an autosomal recessive disease with an increased risk of developing cutaneous neoplasms in sunlight-exposed regions. These cells are deficient in the translesion synthesis (TLS) DNA polymerase eta, responsible for bypassing different types of DNA lesions. From the exome sequencing of 11 skin tumors of a genetic XP-V patients' cluster, classical mutational signatures related to sunlight exposure, such as C>T transitions targeted to pyrimidine dimers, were identified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in genes of the Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) pathway (groups A-G) or in Translesion Synthesis DNA polymerase η (V). XP is associated with an increased skin cancer risk, reaching, for some groups, several thousand-fold compared to the general population. Here, we analyze 38 skin cancer genomes from five XP groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Somatic hypermutation (SHM) of immunoglobulin (Ig) genes is a B cell specific process required for the generation of specific and high affinity antibodies during the maturation of the immune response against foreign antigens. This process depends on the activity of both activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) and several DNA repair factors. AID-dependent SHM creates the full spectrum of mutations in Ig variable (V) regions equally distributed at G/C and A/T bases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a rare, autosomal, recessive DNA repair-deficiency disorder with a frequency of 1-3 per million livebirths in Europe and USA but with higher frequencies in isolated islands or in countries with a high level of consanguinity. XP is characterized by high incidence of skin cancers on sun-exposed sites. Recent improvement in life expectancy of XP patients suggests an increased risk of frequently aggressive and lethal internal tumors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a rare genetic condition in which exposure to sunlight leads to a high tumor incidence due to defective DNA repair machinery. Herein, we investigated seven patients clinically diagnosed with XP living in a small city, Montanhas (Rio Grande do Norte), in the Northeast region of Brazil. We performed high-throughput sequencing and, surprisingly, identified two different mutated genes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

While the major drivers of melanoma initiation, including activation of NRAS/BRAF and loss of PTEN or CDKN2A, have been identified, the role of key transcription factors that impose altered transcriptional states in response to deregulated signaling is not well understood. The POU domain transcription factor BRN2 is a key regulator of melanoma invasion, yet its role in melanoma initiation remains unknown. Here, in a Braf Pten context, we show that BRN2 haplo-insufficiency promotes melanoma initiation and metastasis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * This research analyzes tumor genomes from XP-C patients, revealing a distinct pattern of mutations and a 25-fold increase in mutation rates compared to sporadic leukemia cases.
  • * The findings point to a disruption in the balance between the formation of bulky DNA lesions and their repair, linking the increased mutational burden in XP-C tumors to endogenous damage that the body cannot effectively repair.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In central Brazil, in the municipality of Faina (state of Goiás), the small and isolated village of Araras comprises a genetic cluster of xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) patients. The high level of consanguinity and the geographical isolation gave rise to a high frequency of XP patients. Recently, two founder events were identified affecting that community, with two independent mutations at the POLH gene, c.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The ability of cancer cells to invade and disseminate can be affected by components of the surrounding microenvironment. To identify dermal components that regulate the growth of epidermal carcinomas, we studied the genetic disease called xeroderma pigmentosum that bears mutations in genes involved in the nucleotide excision repair of DNA. Patients with xeroderma pigmentosum are more prone to develop cutaneous tumors than the general population and their dermal fibroblasts display the features of dermal cancer-associated fibroblasts, which promote the invasion of keratinocytes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin genes is a highly mutagenic process that is B cell-specific and occurs during antigen-driven responses leading to antigen specificity and antibody affinity maturation. Mutations at the Ig locus are initiated by Activation-Induced cytidine Deaminase and are equally distributed at G/C and A/T bases. This requires the establishment of error-prone repair pathways involving the activity of several low fidelity DNA polymerases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cockayne syndrome (CS) is a rare genetic disorder caused by mutations (dysfunction) in CSA and CSB. CS patients exhibit mild photosensitivity and severe neurological problems. Currently, CS diagnosis is based on the inefficiency of CS cells to recover RNA synthesis upon genotoxic (UV) stress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a rare, genetic, autosomal nucleotide excision repair-deficient disease characterized by sun-sensitivity and early appearance of skin and ocular tumors. Thirty-two black-skinned XP from Comoros, located in the Indian Ocean, were counted, rendering this area the highest world prevalence of XP. These patients exhibited a new homozygous XPC mutation at the 3'-end of the intron12 (IVS 12-1G>C) leading to the absence of XPC protein.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) is a rare, recessive genetic disease associated with photosensitivity, skin cancer proneness, neurological abnormalities and impaired nucleotide excision repair of the UV-induced DNA damage. Less frequently, XP can be associated with sensitivity to ionizing radiation (IR). Here, a complete radiobiological characterization was performed on a panel of fibroblasts derived from XP-group D patients (XPD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Brittle and "tiger-tail" hair is the diagnostic hallmark of trichothiodystrophy (TTD), a rare recessive disease associated with a wide spectrum of clinical features including ichthyosis, intellectual disability, decreased fertility, and short stature. As a result of premature abrogation of terminal differentiation, the hair is brittle and fragile and contains reduced cysteine content. Hypersensitivity to UV light is found in about half of individuals with TTD; all of these individuals harbor bi-allelic mutations in components of the basal transcription factor TFIIH, and these mutations lead to impaired nucleotide excision repair and basal transcription.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a conserved, flexible mechanism responsible for the removal of bulky, helix-distorting DNA lesions, like ultraviolet damage or cisplatin adducts, but its role in the repair of lesions generated by oxidative stress is still not clear. The helicase XPD/ERCC2, one of the two helicases of the transcription complex IIH, together with XPB, participates both in NER and in RNA pol II-driven transcription. In this work, we investigated the responses of distinct XPD-mutated cell lines to the oxidative stress generated by photoactivated methylene blue (MB) and KBrO3 treatments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is an extremely rare genetic disorder (approximately 100 known cases in the United Kingdom), where DNA damage caused by ultraviolet radiation in daylight cannot be repaired. Adherence to photoprotection is essential to prevent skin cancer. We investigated psychological correlates of photoprotection in the XP population of Western Europe and the United States.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The UVA component of sunlight induces DNA damage, which are basically responsible for skin cancer formation. Xeroderma Pigmentosum Variant (XP-V) patients are defective in the DNA polymerase pol eta that promotes translesion synthesis after sunlight-induced DNA damage, implying in a clinical phenotype of increased frequency of skin cancer. However, the role of UVA-light in the carcinogenesis of these patients is not completely understood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Synthetic lethality is an efficient mechanism-based approach to selectively target DNA repair defects. Excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1) deficiency is frequently found in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), making this DNA repair protein an attractive target for exploiting synthetic lethal approaches in the disease. Using unbiased proteomic and metabolic high-throughput profiling on a unique in-house-generated isogenic model of ERCC1 deficiency, we found marked metabolic rewiring of ERCC1-deficient populations, including decreased levels of the metabolite NAD+ and reduced expression of the rate-limiting NAD+ biosynthetic enzyme nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The case study focuses on a young Caucasian patient with Xeroderma Pigmentosum variant (XPV) who experienced severe sensitivity to sunburn and numerous skin tumors by age 15.
  • Researchers identified two novel mutations in the POLH gene, leading to a loss of function in the translesion DNA polymerase η, which is critical for DNA repair after UV exposure.
  • Analysis confirmed that the patient completely lacked Polη activity, which explains his early onset of skin issues related to UV damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF