A Novel De Novo NFKBIA Missense Mutation Associated to Ectodermal Dysplasia with Dysgammaglobulinemia

The expression of immune related genes and potential regulatory mechanisms in schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate the role of immune dysfunction in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia through single-cell transcriptome and bulk RNA data analyses.

METHODS

The single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) was selected to assess the cellular composition and gene expression profiles of the brain tissue. Further, bulk RNA sequencing data was utilized to corroborate findings from the single-cell analyses and provide additional insights into the molecular changes associated with the disease. Gene-drug interaction data was also included to identify potential therapeutic drugs targeting these dysregulated immune-related genes in schizophrenia.

RESULTS

We discovered significant differences in cellular composition within schizophrenia tissue, including increased infiltration of fibroblasts, horizontal basal cells, monocytes, mesenchymal cells, and smooth muscle cells. The investigation of immune-related genes revealed significantly different expression of genes such as S100A2, CCL14, IGHA1, BPIFA1, GDF15, IL32, BPIFB2, HLA-DRA, S100A8, PTX3, TPM2, TNFRSF12A, GREM1 and others. These genes possibly contribute to the progression of schizophrenia through various pathways such as humoral immune response, IL-17 signaling pathway, adaptive immune response, antigen processing and presentation, and gut IgA production. Our findings also suggest possible transcriptional regulation in schizophrenia's immune dysfunction by transcription factors in monocytes, neutrophils, endothelial cells, and epithelial cells. Lastly, potential therapeutic drugs were identified through gene-drug interaction data, such as those targeting HLA-A and HLAB.

CONCLUSION

The cellular heterogeneity and immune-related gene dysregulation play important roles in schizophrenia, which provides a foundation for understanding the pathogenesis and developing new treatment methods.

Compound heterozygous WNT10A missense variations exacerbated the tooth agenesis caused by hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to analyse the differences in the phenotypes of missing teeth between a pair of brothers with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED) and to investigate the underlying mechanism by comparing the mutated gene loci between the brothers with whole-exome sequencing.

METHODS

The clinical data of the patients and their mother were collected, and genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples. By Whole-exome sequencing filtered for a minor allele frequency (MAF) ≤0.05 non-synonymous single-nucleotide variations and insertions/deletions variations in genes previously associated with tooth agenesis, and variations considered as potentially pathogenic were assessed by SIFT, Polyphen-2, CADD and ACMG. Sanger sequencing was performed to detect gene variations. The secondary and tertiary structures of the mutated proteins were predicted by PsiPred 4.0 and AlphaFold 2.

RESULTS

Both brothers were clinically diagnosed with HED, but the younger brother had more teeth than the elder brother. An EDA variation (c.878 T > G) was identified in both brothers. Additionally, compound heterozygous variations of WNT10A (c.511C > T and c.637G > A) were identified in the elder brother. Digenic variations in EDA (c.878 T > G) and WNT10A (c.511C > T and c.637G > A) in the same patient have not been reported previously. The secondary structure of the variant WNT10A protein showed changes in the number and position of α-helices and β-folds compared to the wild-type protein. The tertiary structure of the WNT10A variant and molecular simulation docking showed that the site and direction where WNT10A binds to FZD5 was changed.

CONCLUSIONS

Compound heterozygous WNT10A missense variations may exacerbate the number of missing teeth in HED caused by EDA variation.