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Poujois A, Antoine JC, Combes A, Touraine RL. Chronic neuromyotonia as a phenotypic variation associated with a new mutation in the KCNA1 gene. J Neurol 2006; 253:957-9. [PMID: 16511644 DOI: 10.1007/s00415-006-0134-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2005] [Revised: 08/03/2005] [Accepted: 09/07/2005] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Aknin-Seifer IE, Touraine RL, Lejeune H, Jimenez C, Chouteau J, Siffroi JP, McElreavey K, Bienvenu T, Patrat C, Levy R. Is the CAG repeat of mitochondrial DNA polymerase gamma (POLG) associated with male infertility? A multi-centre French study. Hum Reprod 2005; 20:736-40. [PMID: 15650046 DOI: 10.1093/humrep/deh666] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent data emphasized the implication of polymerase gamma (POLG) CAG repeats in infertility, making it a very attractive gene for study. A comparison of POLG CAG repeats in infertile and fertile men showed a clear association between the absence of the usual 10-CAG allele and male infertility, excluding azoospermia. It has also been suggested that the POLG gene polymorphism should be considered as a possible contributing factor in unexplained couple infertility where semen parameters are normal. In this study, we investigated the POLG CAG repeats, in a well-defined population of patients with severe male factor infertility. METHODS We conducted a large study of POLG CAG repeats in 433 infertile and 91 fertile, normozoospermic and healthy males. In all subjects, phenotypic data, including semen parameters, hormonal status and clinical profiles, were available. RESULTS Thirteen 'homozygous mutants' (3%) were found among the 433 idiopathic infertile patients. The follow-up of the 13 'homozygous mutant' resulted in pregnancy for more than half of the couples, through assisted reproductive techniques or even spontaneously. In addition, one 'homozygous mutant' was identified in 91 fertile men (1.1%) CONCLUSION Under our conditions, our study does not confirm any relationship between the polymorphic CAG repeat in the POLG gene and male infertility.
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Affiliation(s)
- I E Aknin-Seifer
- Laboratoire de Biologie de la Reproduction, Service de Génétique Moléculaire, CHU-Hôpital Nord, Saint Etienne, France
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Aknin-Seifer IE, Touraine RL, Lejeune H, Laurent JL, Lauras B, Levy R. A simple, low cost and non-invasive method for screening Y-chromosome microdeletions in infertile men. Hum Reprod 2003; 18:257-61. [PMID: 12571158 DOI: 10.1093/humrep/deg067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent investigations emphasized a high prevalence of Y-chromosome microdeletions in men having severely impaired spermatogenesis. Screening of these men is recommended prior to assisted reproduction techniques. METHODS The aim of this study was to define a reliable and efficient method to detect Y-chromosome deletions in infertile men. At first the feasibility of using a cytobrush to collect buccal cells as a source of DNA was tested. Then, a multiplex PCR in accordance with European recommendations (European Andrology Academia: EAA) was compared with a commercial kit. The test population consisted of 18 infertile male patients (with a known Y-deletion). Both buccal and blood cells were used for DNA extraction. A specific DNA extraction protocol was carried out on the buccal cells. RESULTS Between 4-10 micro g of DNA were retrieved per brush, allowing for several PCR attempts. The commercial kit failed to detect an AZFa deletion. Furthermore, markers sY130, sY133 and sY153, included in the kit, are not reliable. Both false negative and false positive results were generated by the commercial kit. CONCLUSION A multiplex PCR performed pursuant to EAA recommendations is proposed. When the testing is conducted with DNA extracted from buccal cells, this protocol is simple, accurate and affordable.
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Affiliation(s)
- I E Aknin-Seifer
- Laboratoire de Biologie de la Reproduction, Hôpital Nord, 42055 Saint Etienne, France
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Abstract
The autonomic nervous system plays an important role in the generation of complex heart rate dynamics that enable an organism to adapt to stress. Little is known about genes influencing the development of this autonomic control of the heart. We suggest the SOX10 gene to be a candidate for this process.
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Touraine RL, Attié-Bitach T, Manceau E, Korsch E, Sarda P, Pingault V, Encha-Razavi F, Pelet A, Augé J, Nivelon-Chevallier A, Holschneider AM, Munnes M, Doerfler W, Goossens M, Munnich A, Vekemans M, Lyonnet S. Neurological phenotype in Waardenburg syndrome type 4 correlates with novel SOX10 truncating mutations and expression in developing brain. Am J Hum Genet 2000; 66:1496-503. [PMID: 10762540 PMCID: PMC1378013 DOI: 10.1086/302895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 107] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/1999] [Accepted: 02/16/2000] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Waardenburg syndrome type 4 (WS4), also called Shah-Waardenburg syndrome, is a rare neurocristopathy that results from the absence of melanocytes and intrinsic ganglion cells of the terminal hindgut. WS4 is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait attributable to EDN3 or EDNRB mutations. It is inherited as an autosomal dominant condition when SOX10 mutations are involved. We report on three unrelated WS4 patients with growth retardation and an as-yet-unreported neurological phenotype with impairment of both the central and autonomous nervous systems and occasionally neonatal hypotonia and arthrogryposis. Each of the three patients was heterozygous for a SOX10 truncating mutation (Y313X in two patients and S251X [corrected] in one patient). The extended spectrum of the WS4 phenotype is relevant to the brain expression of SOX10 during human embryonic and fetal development. Indeed, the expression of SOX10 in human embryo was not restricted to neural-crest-derived cells but also involved fetal brain cells, most likely of glial origin. These data emphasize the important role of SOX10 in early development of both neural-crest-derived tissues, namely melanocytes, autonomic and enteric nervous systems, and glial cells of the central nervous system.
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Affiliation(s)
- R L Touraine
- Département de Génétique et Unité de Recherches sur les Handicaps Génétiques de l'Enfant, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, 75743 Paris, France
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Touraine RL, Ishii-Morita H, Ramsey WJ, Blaese RM. The bystander effect in the HSVtk/ganciclovir system and its relationship to gap junctional communication. Gene Ther 1998; 5:1705-11. [PMID: 10023450 DOI: 10.1038/sj.gt.3300784] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The bystander effect (BSE) is an interesting and important property of the herpes thymidine kinase/ganciclovir (hTK/GCV) system of gene therapy for cancer. With the BSE, not only are the hTK expressing cells killed upon ganciclovir (GCV) exposure but also neighboring wild-type tumor cells. On testing a large number of tumor cell lines in vitro, a wide range of sensitivity to bystander killing was found. Since transfer of toxic GCV metabolites from hTK-modified to wild-type tumor cells via gap junctions (GJ) seemed to be a likely mechanism of the BSE, we tested GJ function in these various tumors with a dye transfer technique and pharmacological agents known to affect GJ communication. We confirmed that mixtures of tumor cell resistant to the BSE did not show dye transfer from cell to cell while bystander-sensitive tumor cells did. Dieldrin, a drug known to decrease GJ communication, diminished dye transfer and also inhibited the BSE. Forskolin, an upregulator of cAMP did increase GJ, but directly inhibited hTK and therefore its effect on BSE could not be determined. We conclude that these observations further support port the concept that functional GJ play an important role in the BSE and further suggest that pharmacological manipulation of GJ may influence the outcome of cancer therapy with hTK/GCV.
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Affiliation(s)
- R L Touraine
- National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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Touraine RL, Vahanian N, Ramsey WJ, Blaese RM. Enhancement of the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase/ganciclovir bystander effect and its antitumor efficacy in vivo by pharmacologic manipulation of gap junctions. Hum Gene Ther 1998; 9:2385-91. [PMID: 9829537 DOI: 10.1089/hum.1998.9.16-2385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Apigenin, a flavinoid, and lovastatin, an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, upregulated gap junction (GJ) function and dye transfer in tumors expressing GJ and were inactive in the GJ-negative tumor line N2a. N2a cells transfected with the connexin 43 gene showed restored cell-to-cell dye transfer, which could then be improved nearly fourfold by addition of apigenin. To test the drugs in HSV thymidine kinase/ganciclovir (HSV-tk/GCV) tumor killing, mixtures of 90% wild-type (WT) with 10% HSV-tk gene-modified MCA38 adenocarcinoma cells were exposed in vitro to GCV +/- apigenin or lovastatin. A significant bystander effect (BSE) was seen following GCV treatment alone, while neither apigenin or lovastatin alone had any effect on the recovery of viable tumor colonies. However, GCV-treated cultures also exposed to apigenin or lovastatin showed an increased BSE and reduced tumor cell recovery. Thirty percent of mice bearing tumors from the same mixture of 90% WT and 10% HSV-tk MCA38 cells treated with GCV alone became tumor free. Tumor-bearing mice given only two or three injections of lovastatin or apigenin during GCV treatment had a doubling of the antitumor response rate, with 60-70% of the mice achieving complete remission. These results support the hypothesis that the transfer of phosphorylated GCV from HSV-tk gene-expressing cells to neighboring WT tumor cells is a major component of the BSE and that pharmacological manipulation of GJ function with lovastatin or apigenin can result in striking improvement in the antitumor response in mice with tumors modified to contain as few as 10% HSV-tk cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- R L Touraine
- Clinical Gene Therapy Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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Mornet E, Taillandier A, Peyramaure S, Kaper F, Muller F, Brenner R, Bussière P, Freisinger P, Godard J, Le Merrer M, Oury JF, Plauchu H, Puddu R, Rival JM, Superti-Furga A, Touraine RL, Serre JL, Simon-Bouy B. Identification of fifteen novel mutations in the tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNSALP) gene in European patients with severe hypophosphatasia. Eur J Hum Genet 1998; 6:308-14. [PMID: 9781036 DOI: 10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 84] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Hypophosphatasia is an inherited disorder characterised by defective bone mineralisation and deficiency of serum and tissue liver/bone/kidney alkaline phosphatase (L/B/K ALP) activity. We report the characterisation of tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNSALP) gene mutations in a series of 13 European families affected by perinatal, infantile or childhood hypophosphatasia. Eighteen distinct mutations were found, only three of which had been reported previously in North American and Japanese populations. Most of the 15 new mutations were missense mutations, but we also found two mutations affecting donor splice sites and a nonsense mutation. A missense mutation in the last codon of the putative signal peptide probably affects the final maturation of the protein. Despite extensive sequencing of the gene and its promotor region, only one mutation was identified in two cases, one of which was compatible with a possible dominant effect of certain mutations and the putative role of polymorphisms of the TNSALP gene. In 12 of the 13 tested families, genetic diagnosis was possible by characterisation of the mutations or by use of polymorphisms as genetic markers. Hypophosphatasia diagnosis was assigned in two families where clinical, laboratory and radiographic data were unclear and prenatal diagnosis was performed in one case. The results also show that severe hypophosphatasia is due to a very large spectrum of mutations in European populations with no prevalent mutation and that genetic diagnosis of the disease must be performed by extensive analysis of the gene.
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Affiliation(s)
- E Mornet
- Centre d'Etudes de Biologie Prénatale-SESEP, Université de Versailles, France.
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Touraine RL, Rolland MO, Divry P, Mathieu M, Guibaud P, Bozon D. A 13-bp deletion (1952 del 13) in the methylmalonyl CoA mutase gene of an affected patient. Hum Mutat 1995; 5:354-6. [PMID: 7627195 DOI: 10.1002/humu.1380050417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
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Abstract
The occurrence of liver tumours in the course of Fanconi anaemia (FA) has been well documented. We present a case, review the literature and conclude that androgen therapy would increase the risk of developing tumours, most of which appear to be benign (adenomas or peliosis) and androgen-dependent, generally decreasing in size after cessation of treatment. Survival of patients is poor, mostly because of the rapid evolution of the tumour. In the absence of an allogenic bone marrow transplantation, administration of haematopoietic growth factors might be effective. As a preventive measure, other types of unsubstituted androgens may be used.
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Affiliation(s)
- R L Touraine
- Department of Radiology, Hôpital Debrousse, Lyon, France
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Touraine RL, Guibaud P. [Genetics and hyperphenylalaninemias in 1992]. Pediatrie 1992; 47:9-21. [PMID: 1363245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/25/2023]
Abstract
Hyperphenylalaninemias result from different enzymatic impairment, the most common and best studied which is phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) deficiency. The PAH gene has been cloned, sequenced and mapped: it is a single copy. Twenty-one mutations have now been characterized, but they constitute less than half of the haploid genotypes in French patients. A study of RFLP haplotypes is informative in 90% of families, but no linkage disequilibrium exists between illness and one particular haplotype. Prediction of phenotype from genotype seems possible, and could constitute a better therapeutic approach, perhaps including gene therapy in the most serious cases. The recently produced murine model should permit further progress to be made. Some hypotheses could be put forward about the origin and high frequency of this disease, that principally affects Caucasians: there is a consensus of opinion--though there is no definitive proof--that some selective advantage exists in individuals heterozygous for a PKU allele.
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Affiliation(s)
- R L Touraine
- Service de pédiatrie-génétique, hôpital Debrousse, Lyon, France
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Affiliation(s)
- K Lassoued
- University Paris-XII, Hospital H. Mondor, Créteil, France
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Saïag P, Touraine RL. [Kaposi's sarcoma and AIDS]. Rev Prat 1986; 36:1191-7. [PMID: 3775207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
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