Williams syndrome (WS), caused by hemizygous deletion of 1.55-1.8 Mb of chromosome 7q11.23, has a recognizable behavior phenotype that is an important diagnostic sign. Individuals with WS are overly friendly, gregarious, empathetic, and loquacious, but have difficulty interpreting social cues and in making and keeping friends. The neurodevelopmental profile is characterized by overall intellectual disability, strength in concrete language, weakness in visuospatial construction, difficulties with sensory modulation, balance, and tool use, and problems with attention and anxiety. Structural and functional MRI studies demonstrate that gray matter deficiency in the intraparietal sulcus alters processing of spatial information in the dorsal stream (spatial) visual pathway, likely contributing to the visuospatial construction disability. Deficient regulation of the amygdala by the oribitofrontal cortex appears to underlie both the social disinhibition and the specific phobia common in WS. Continued study of cognition, behavior, neuroanatomy, and function in WS will continue to elucidate the neurogenetic underpinnings of human behavior.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.c.30286 | DOI Listing |
Elife
January 2025
The University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
encodes three regulatory subunits of class IA phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), each associating with any of three catalytic subunits, namely p110α, p110β, or p110δ. Constitutional mutations cause diseases with a genotype-phenotype relationship not yet fully explained: heterozygous loss-of-function mutations cause SHORT syndrome, featuring insulin resistance and short stature attributed to reduced p110α function, while heterozygous activating mutations cause immunodeficiency, attributed to p110δ activation and known as APDS2. Surprisingly, APDS2 patients do not show features of p110α hyperactivation, but do commonly have SHORT syndrome-like features, suggesting p110α hypofunction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
December 2024
Diabetes Research Group, Swansea University Medical School, Swansea, GBR.
Introduction Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) have shared pathophysiology. We aim to explore associations between these diseases and the impact of T2D therapies on MASLD-related outcomes in a real-world population. Methods A retrospective cohort study included 153 patients with biopsy-proven MASLD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Intellect Dev Disabil
March 2024
Department of Psychology and Human Development, IOE UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, London, UK.
The home literacy environment (HLE) has rarely been examined for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, including individuals with Williams syndrome and Down syndrome. The current study surveyed carers of individuals with Down syndrome (n = 48) and Williams syndrome (n = 18) in the United Kingdom (UK). The study reports that individuals with Down syndrome were rated higher in general reading skills and writing, while the Williams syndrome group scored higher for speaking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Infect Dis
January 2025
Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Background: Pediatric respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-related acute lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) commonly requires hospitalization. The Clinical Progression Scale Pediatrics (CPS-Ped) measures level of respiratory support and degree of hypoxia across a range of disease severity, but it has not been applied in infants hospitalized with severe RSV-LRTI.
Methods: We analyzed data from a prospective surveillance registry of infants hospitalized for RSV-related complications across 39 U.
JAMA Pediatr
January 2025
Department of Cardiology, Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
Importance: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a life-threatening complication of COVID-19 infection. Data on midterm outcomes are limited.
Objective: To characterize the frequency and time course of cardiac dysfunction (left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] <55%), coronary artery aneurysms (z score ≥2.
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