Project description:NGS-based multiple gene panel resequencing in combination with a high resolution CGH-array was used to identify genetic risk factors for hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer in 237 high risk patients who were previously tested negative for pathogenic BRCA1/2 variants. All patients were screened for pathogenic variants in 94 different cancer predisposing genes. We identified 32 pathogenic variants in 14 different genes (ATM, BLM, BRCA1, CDH1, CHEK2, FANCG, FANCM, FH, HRAS, PALB2, PMS2, PTEN, RAD51C and NBN) in 30 patients (12.7%). Two pathogenic BRCA1 variants that were previously undetected due to less comprehensive and sensitive methods were found. Five pathogenic variants are novel, three of which occur in genes yet unrelated to hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer (FANCG, FH and HRAS). In our cohort we discovered a remarkably high frequency of truncating variants in FANCM (2.1%), which has recently been suggested as a susceptibility gene for hereditary breast cancer. Two patients of our cohort carried two different pathogenic variants each and ten other patients in whom a pathogenic variant was confirmed also harbored a variant of unknown significance in a breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene. We were able to identify pathogenic variants predisposing for tumor formation in 12.3% of BRCA1/2 negative breast and/or ovarian cancer patients.
Project description:The IMPACT Study seeks to refine and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions on improving guideline-adherent cancer risk management (CRM) and family communication (FC) of genetic test results. These interventions will be delivered to individuals with a documented pathogenic/likely pathogenic (P/LP) variant or variant of uncertain significance (VUS) in an inherited cancer gene.
Project description:Currently there is a lack of effective therapies which result in long-term durable response for patients presenting with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC), a very rare and lethal variant of thyroid cancer. ATC is resistant to chemotherapy, radiation, and targeted therapies currently available. In an effort to identify novel tumor-specific therapeutic targets, we performed high throughput gene array analysis screening numerous ATC cell lines, and compared their gene expression levels to normal thyroid cell lines.
Project description:Currently there is a lack of effective therapies which result in long-term durable response for patients presenting with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC), a very rare and lethal variant of thyroid cancer. ATC is resistant to chemotherapy, radiation, and targeted therapies currently available. In an effort to identify novel tumor-specific therapeutic targets, we performed high throughput gene array analysis screening numerous patient ATC tumor tissues, and compared their gene expression levels to matched and unmatched normal thyroid tissue samples. RNA was extracted from flash frozen patient tumor and normal samples. Gene array analysis was performed, and resulting expression levels were compared between normal and tumor samples.
Project description:Currently there is a lack of effective therapies which result in long-term durable response for patients presenting with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC), a very rare and lethal variant of thyroid cancer. ATC is resistant to chemotherapy, radiation, and targeted therapies currently available. In an effort to identify novel tumor-specific therapeutic targets, we performed high throughput gene array analysis screening numerous patient ATC tumor tissues, and compared their gene expression levels to matched and unmatched normal thyroid tissue samples.
Project description:RNA profiles strongly differ in TTNtv and LMNA-mutated DCM patients, despite clinical similarities as other pathogenic variant carriers such as RBM20 and MYH7, suggesting a specific genetic effect on the cardiac transcriptome in addition to the effect of the clinical component.
Project description:Introduction: CHEK2 is a moderate penetrance breast cancer risk gene, whose truncating mutation 1100delC increases the risk about two fold. We pursued to investigate gene copy number aberrations and gene expression profiles that are typical for breast tumors of CHEK2 1100delC mutation carriers. Materials and methods: A total of 126 breast tumor tissue specimens including 32 samples from patients carrying CHEK2 1100delC were studied in array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) and gene expression experiments (GEX). After dimensionality reduction with CGHregions R package, CHEK2 1100delC associated regions in the aCGH data were detected by Wilcoxon rank sum test. Linear model was fitted to GEX data with R package limma. Genes whose expression levels were associated with CHEK2 1100delC mutation were detected by Bayesian method. Results: We discovered four lost and three gained CHEK2 1100delC related loci. These include losses of 1p13.3-31.3, 8p21.1-2, 8p23.1-2 and 17p12-13.1 as well as gains of 12q13.11-3, 16p13.3 and 19p13.3. Twenty-eight genes located on these regions showed differential expression between CHEK2 1100delC and other tumors nominating them as candidates for CHEK2 1100delC associated tumor progression drivers. These included CLCA1 on 1p22 as well as CALCOCO1, SBEM and LRP1 on 12q13. Altogether 188 genes were differentially expressed between CHEK2 1100delC and other tumors. Of these, 144 had elevated and 44 lowered expression levels. Our results suggest WNT pathway as a driver of tumorigenesis in breast tumors of CHEK2 1100delC mutation carriers and a role for the olfactory receptor protein family in cancer progression. Differences in the expression of the 188 CHEK2 1100delC associated genes divided breast tumor samples from three independent datasets into two groups that differed in their relapse-free survival time. Conclusions: We have shown that copy number aberrations of certain genomic regions are associated with CHEK2 mutation 1100delC. On these regions we have identified potential drivers of CHEK2 1100delC associated tumorigenesis, whose role in cancer progression is worth investigating. Furthermore, poorer survival related to the CHEK2 1100delC gene expression signature highlights pathways that are likely to have a role in the development of metastatic disease in carriers of CHEK2 1100delC mutation. 78 samples from breast tumors: 13 tumors from CHEK2 1100delC mutation carriers, 65 other tumors
Project description:Abstract Introduction: CHEK2 is a moderate penetrance breast cancer risk gene, whose truncating mutation 1100delC increases the risk about two fold. We pursued to investigate gene copy number aberrations and gene expression profiles that are typical for breast tumors of CHEK2 1100delC mutation carriers. Materials and methods: A total of 126 breast tumor tissue specimens including 32 samples from patients carrying CHEK2 1100delC were studied in array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) and gene expression experiments (GEX). After dimensionality reduction with CGHregions R package, CHEK2 1100delC associated regions in the aCGH data were detected by Wilcoxon rank sum test. Linear model was fitted to GEX data with R package limma. Genes whose expression levels were associated with CHEK2 1100delC mutation were detected by Bayesian method. Results: We discovered four lost and three gained CHEK2 1100delC related loci. These include losses of 1p13.3-31.3, 8p21.1-2, 8p23.1-2 and 17p12-13.1 as well as gains of 12q13.11-3, 16p13.3 and 19p13.3. Twenty-eight genes located on these regions showed differential expression between CHEK2 1100delC and other tumors nominating them as candidates for CHEK2 1100delC associated tumor progression drivers. These included CLCA1 on 1p22 as well as CALCOCO1, SBEM and LRP1 on 12q13. Altogether 188 genes were differentially expressed between CHEK2 1100delC and other tumors. Of these, 144 had elevated and 44 lowered expression levels. Our results suggest WNT pathway as a driver of tumorigenesis in breast tumors of CHEK2 1100delC mutation carriers and a role for the olfactory receptor protein family in cancer progression. Differences in the expression of the 188 CHEK2 1100delC associated genes divided breast tumor samples from three independent datasets into two groups that differed in their relapse-free survival time. Conclusions: We have shown that copy number aberrations of certain genomic regions are associated with CHEK2 mutation 1100delC. On these regions we have identified potential drivers of CHEK2 1100delC associated tumorigenesis, whose role in cancer progression is worth investigating. Furthermore, poorer survival related to the CHEK2 1100delC gene expression signature highlights pathways that are likely to have a role in the development of metastatic disease in carriers of CHEK2 1100delC mutation. 79 samples from breast tumors: 22 tumors from CHEK2 1100delC mutation carriers, 57 other tumors Five files attached represent segmented values, copy number calls, gain, loss and normal copy number probabilities.
Project description:Here we report a boy who has a novel pathogenic variant in MeCP2 (p.Lys254*). The serum proteome of patients was analyzed by quantitative proteome labeled with TMT, and several proteins with obvious expression level changes were found.
Project description:Congenital Hypothyroidism occurs in 1:3500 live births and is therefore the most common congenital endocrine disorder. A spectrum of defective thyroid morphology, termed thyroid dysgenesis, represents 80% of permanent CH cases. Although several candidate genes have been implicated in thyroid development, comprehensive screens failed to detect mutation carriers in a significant number of patients with non-syndromic TD. Due to the sporadic occurrence of TD, de novo chromosomal rearrangements are conceivably representing one of the molecular mechanisms participating in its aetiology. Recently, the use of array CGH technique has provided the ability to map these variations genomewide with high resolution. We performed an array CGH screen of 74 TD patients to determine the role of copy number variants (CNV) in the aetiology of the disease. We identified novel CNVs in 8.75% of all patients that have not been described as frequent variations in the healthy population. Affected patients presented with athyreosis or thyroid hypoplasia and in one case with associated heart malformation. We selected 74 patients with thyroid dysgenesis for array CGH analysis. All individuals were detected in neonatal screening programs and abnormal thyroid gland morphology was subsequently confirmed by ultrasound examination. Intragenic mutations in NKX2-1, FOXE1 and NKX2.5 had been previously excluded in phenotype characteristic individuals. PAX8 mutations were excluded in all patients with hypoplastic thyroids by direct sequencing of the coding exons 1-11. The study was approved by the local ethics committee. Genomic DNA of all subjects as well as of healthy controls was isolated from peripheral blood leucocytes using the Qiagen DNA blood mini kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). Array-comparative genomic hybridization was carried as described previously {Erdogan, 2006 #142; Pinkel, 1998 #151}. In brief, sonicated patient- and control DNA was labeled by random priming with Cy3-dUTP and Cy5-dUTP (Bioprime Array CGH, Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA), respectively, and hybridized onto a submegabase resolution tiling path BAC array, consisting of ~ 36 000 BAC clones obtained from several sources as described elsewhere {Fiegler, 2003 #198; Ishkanian, 2004 #196; Krzywinski, 2004 #197} . Step-by-step protocols are also provided at http://www.molgen.mpg.de/~abt_rop/molecular_cytogenetics/. Arrays were scanned with the G2565BA Agilent Microarray Scanner System (resolution 10 µm; PMT 100 % for Cy3/Cy5, respectively) (Agilent Inc. Santa Clara, CA) and analyzed using GENEPIX Pro 5.0 Software. Analysis and visualization of array CGH data were performed with our software package CGHPRO {Chen, 2005 #143}. For the assessment of copy number gains and losses, we used conservative log2 ratio thresholds of 0.3 and -0.3, respectively. Deviant signal intensity ratios involving three or more consecutive BAC clones were considered to be potentially pathogenic, unless they were covered by more than one known DNA copy number variant, as listed in the Database of Genomic Variants (http://projects.tcag.ca/variation/) or covered by > 50% of their length at least once in our reference set of 600 samples. Potentially pathogenic CNVs were verified by array CGH on a 244k oligonucleotide array from Agilent following the manufacturer’s instructions (Protocol-No. G4410-90010). Confirmed CNVs were tested for inheritance by co-hybridization of parental DNA on BAC arrays as described above. All chromosome coordinates are referring to the UCSC Genome Browser Assembly May 2004 (hg17/ NCBI Build 35; available at: http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgGateway?hgsid=99195739&clade=vertebrate&org=Human&db=hg17). Cytoscape {Shannon, 2003 #201} was used for the elucidation of potential interactions between genes within the intervals of interest.