PHF21A Related Disorder: Description of a New Case

Naturally occurring splice variants dissect the functional domains of BHC80 and emphasize the need for RNA analysis

Pathogenic PHF21A variation causes PHF21A-related neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Although amorphic alleles, including haploinsufficiency, have been established as a disease mechanism, increasing evidence suggests that missense variants as well as frameshift variants extending the BHC80 carboxyl terminus also cause disease. Expanding on these, we report a proposita with intellectual disability and overgrowth and a novel de novo heterozygous PHF21A splice variant (NM_001352027.3:c.[153+1G>C];[=]) causing skipping of exon 6, which encodes an in-frame BHC80 deletion (p.(Asn30_Gln51del)). This deletion disrupts a predicted leucine zipper domain and implicates this domain in BHC80 function and as a target of variation causing PHF21A-related NDDs. This extension of understanding emphasizes the application of RNA analysis in precision genomic medicine practice.

Neurological Diseases: A Molecular Genetic Perspective

Neurological disorders (which include a broad spectrum of central nervous system diseases from children to old people) remain among the most compelling illnesses known to humankind [...].

A novel de novo variant in the PHF21A causes craniofacial abnormalities, intellectual disability and skeletal manifestations

IDDBCS is a heterogeneous genetic syndrome with diverse clinical features including Intellectual disability and epilepsy. Using WES, Sanger sequencing, we identified a novel nonsense variant in the PHF21A gene responsible for IDDBCS syndrome. The patient has diverse and overlapping clinical phenotypes. The identified variant leads to abnormal secondary and tertiary structure of the protein and, consequently, affects its function.