Publications by authors named "Yoko Aoki"

Large-scale population cohort studies that collect genomic information are tasked with returning an assessment of genetic risk for hereditary cancers to participants. While several studies have applied to return identified genetic risks to participants, comprehensive surveys of participants' understanding, feelings, and behaviors toward cancer risk remain to be conducted. Here, we report our experience and surveys of returning genetic risks to 100 carriers of pathogenic variants for hereditary cancers identified through whole genome sequencing of 50 000 individuals from the Tohoku Medical Megabank project, a population cohort study.

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Constitutively active mutants of BRAF cause cardio-facio-cutaneous (CFC) syndrome, characterized by growth and developmental defects, cardiac malformations, facial features, cutaneous manifestations, and mental retardation. An animal model of human CFC syndrome, the systemic BrafQ241R/+ mutant mouse, has been reported to exhibit multiple CFC syndrome-like phenotypes. In this study, we analyzed the effects of Braf mutations on neural function, separately from their effects on developmental processes.

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Background And Objectives: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an adult-onset progressive neurodegenerative disease. Approximately 10% of ALS cases are familial, and more than 20 causative genes have been identified. As we have previously reported, variants are the most common causes of familial ALS in Japan.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study in Yamagata, Japan, analyzed blood samples from different years (1976-2019) to understand the prevalence of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), a virus that was uncommon in the 20th century.
  • The research found that neutralizing antibody positive rates in people under 20 years increased significantly over the years, suggesting rising exposure to EV-D68.
  • The study also indicated that while children show a gradual increase in seroprevalence, adults reach a high plateau, indicating consistent transmission of the virus among children even when it was rarely detected.
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Leucine-zipper-like posttranslational regulator 1 (LZTR1) is a member of the BTB-Kelch superfamily, which regulates the RAS proteostasis. Autosomal dominant (AD) mutations in LZTR1 have been identified in patients with Noonan syndrome (NS), a congenital anomaly syndrome. However, it remains unclear whether LZTR1 AD mutations regulate the proteostasis of the RAS subfamily molecules or cause NS-like phenotypes in vivo.

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  • A 9-year-old child was found to be coinfected with two influenza B virus lineages, B/Yamagata and B/Victoria, prompting an analysis of genetic reassortment.
  • Out of 34 viral plaques isolated from the child's throat swab, 21 showed characteristics of the B/Yamagata lineage, while 13 were reassorted with B/Victoria genes in varying segments.
  • The study highlights that the co-circulation of these influenza B strains can enhance genetic diversity, potentially leading to the emergence of new strains that could cause epidemics.
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  • Generalized lymphatic anomaly (GLA) and kaposiform lymphangiomatosis (KLA) are rare disorders linked to abnormal development of the lymphatic system, with recent findings indicating the NRAS p.Q61R genetic variant's involvement in these conditions.
  • Research using a specific mouse model showed that embryos with the NRAS p.Q61R variant had wider lymphatic vessels and fewer branching lymphatic vessels, alongside an increase in lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs).
  • Despite these findings in embryos, the same genetic variant did not lead to abnormal lymphatic development post-birth, suggesting that while the model provides insights, it may not fully replicate the human forms of GLA and KLA.
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  • Noonan syndrome (NS) is linked to genetic variants in the RAS/MAPK pathway, causing symptoms like unique facial features, heart defects, and short stature.
  • A study on 116 NS patients in Japan identified pathogenic genes in 86% of cases, with specific variants being the most common.
  • The research found no significant link between genotype and body mass index (BMI) but highlighted important insights into genetic patterns for Japanese individuals with NS.
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This report describes an adult case of Poretti-Boltshauser syndrome (PTBHS) and with novel variants of LAMA1. A 65-year-old Japanese woman with cerebellar malformation identified during a medical checkup was referred to our hospital. Subsequently, neurological examination, brain imaging, and genetic investigation via whole-exome sequencing were performed.

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Cerebellar ataxia, neuropathy, and vestibular areflexia syndrome (CANVAS) is an autosomal recessive multisystem neurologic disorder caused by biallelic intronic repeats in RFC1. Although the phenotype of CANVAS has been expanding via diagnostic case accumulation, there are scant pedigree analyses to reveal disease penetrance, intergenerational fluctuations in repeat length, or clinical phenomena (including heterozygous carriers). We identified biallelic RFC1 ACAGG expansions of 1000 ~ repeats in three affected siblings having sensorimotor neuronopathy with spinocerebellar atrophy initially presenting with painful muscle cramps and paroxysmal dry cough.

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Little information is available on age-related electrocardiographic changes in patients with Noonan syndrome. This single-center study evaluated the electrocardiograms of patients with Noonan syndrome. We divided the patients ( = 112; electrocardiograms, 256) into four groups according to age: G1 (1 month-1 year), G2 (1-6 years), G3 (6-12 years), and G4 (>12 years).

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Objective: Multisystem proteinopathy type 3 (MSP3) is an inherited, pleiotropic degenerative disorder caused by a mutation in heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1 (hnRNPA1), which can affect the muscle, bone, and/or nervous system. This study aimed to determine detailed histopathological features and transcriptomic profile of HNRNPA1-mutated skeletal muscles to reveal the core pathomechanism of hereditary inclusion body myopathy (hIBM), a predominant phenotype of MSP3.

Methods: Histopathological analyses and RNA sequencing of HNRNPA1-mutated skeletal muscles harboring a c.

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Leucine zipper-like transcriptional regulator 1 (LZTR1), a substrate adaptor of Cullin 3 (CUL3)-based E3 ubiquitin ligase, regulates proteostasis of the RAS subfamily. Mutations in LZTR1 have been identified in patients with several types of cancer. However, the role of LZTR1 in tumor metastasis and the target molecules of LZTR1, excluding the RAS subfamily, are not clearly understood.

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Variants of SCN1A represent the archetypal channelopathy associated with several epilepsy syndromes. The clinical phenotypes have recently expanded from Dravet syndrome. CASE REPORT: We present a female patient with the de novo SCN1A missense variant, c.

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the degeneration of motor neurons. Although repeat expansion in C9orf72 is its most common cause, the pathogenesis of ALS isn't fully clear. In this study, we show that repeat expansion in LRP12, a causative variant of oculopharyngodistal myopathy type 1 (OPDM1), is a cause of ALS.

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Radioulnar synostosis with amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia (RUSAT) is an inherited bone marrow failure syndrome characterized by the congenital fusion of the forearm bones. RUSAT is largely caused by missense mutations that are clustered in a specific region of the MDS1 and EVI1 complex locus (MECOM). EVI1, a transcript variant encoded by MECOM, is a zinc finger transcription factor involved in hematopoietic stem cell maintenance that induce leukemic transformation when overexpressed.

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To investigate the antigenic changes in parechovirus 1 (PeVA1), seroepidemiological analyses were performed against the Harris strain (Harris), isolated in 1956, and PeVA1/Yamagata.JPN/2021-4785, isolated in 2021, using immune sera and 207 and 237 human serum specimens collected in 2021 and 1976, respectively. Although rabbit immune sera showed the highest neutralization antibody (NT-Ab) titers against the immunized viruses at 1:12 800-1:102 400, they were cross-reactive at 1:400-1:800.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the trend towards personalized cancer treatment through comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) and the importance of identifying germline pathogenic variants (GPVs) as secondary findings during treatment.
  • A retrospective analysis at one hospital revealed that out of 64 patients recommended for confirmatory testing, 17 tested positive for GPVs, including known variants like BRCA1 and BRCA2.
  • The research highlights how molecular tumor boards (MTBs) help guide testing decisions, and these findings could influence the management of genomic analysis in cancer patients.
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Measles is a highly contagious, but vaccine-preventable disease caused by the measles virus (MeV). Although the administration of two doses of measles vaccines is the most effective strategy to prevent and eliminate measles, MeV continues to spread worldwide, even in 2022. In measles-eliminated countries, preparedness and response to measles outbreaks originating from imported cases are required to maintain elimination status.

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Mutations in the MECOM encoding EVI1 are observed in infants who have radioulnar synostosis with amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia. MECOM-associated syndrome was proposed based on clinical heterogeneity. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curative treatment for progressive bone marrow failure.

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Enhanced signaling through RAS and the mitogen-associated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade underlies the RASopathies, a family of clinically related disorders affecting development and growth. In RASopathies, increased RAS-MAPK signaling can result from the upregulated activity of various RAS GTPases, enhanced function of proteins positively controlling RAS function or favoring the efficient transmission of RAS signaling to downstream transducers, functional upregulation of RAS effectors belonging to the MAPK cascade, or inefficient signaling switch-off operated by feedback mechanisms acting at different levels. The massive effort in RASopathy gene discovery performed in the last 20 years has identified more than 20 genes implicated in these disorders.

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Background: A paradigm shift has occurred in cancer chemotherapy from tumor-specific treatment with cytotoxic agents to personalized medicine with molecular-targeted drugs. Thus, it is essential to identify genomic alterations and molecular features to recommend effective targeted molecular medicines regardless of the tumor site. Nevertheless, it takes considerable expertise to identify treatment targets from primary-sequencing data in order to provide drug recommendations.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Recent research indicates that the PI3K signaling pathway is crucial in the development of slow-flow vascular malformations (SFVMs), which could lead to new treatment options.
  • - A study analyzed genetic mutations in 59 patients with various types of SFVMs by screening 29 candidate genes, focusing on mutations in the TEK and PIK3CA genes.
  • - Findings revealed that a substantial 62.7% of patients had pathogenic variants in these genes, suggesting that PI3K pathway inhibitors might be effective targeted therapies for treating SFVMs.
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ANO3 encodes Anoctamin-3, also known as TMEM16C, a calcium-activated chloride channel. Heterozygous variants of ANO3 can cause dystonia 24, an adult-onset focal dystonia. Some pediatric cases have been reported, but most patients were intellectually normal with some exceptions.

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