Browsing by Author "Josifova, Dragana"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Biallelic CRELD1 variants cause a multisystem syndrome, including neurodevelopmental phenotypes, cardiac dysrhythmias, and frequent infections
    (Elsevier, 2024) Jeffries, Lauren; Mis, Emily K.; McWalter, Kirsty; Donkervoort, Sandra; Brodsky, Nina N.; Carpier, Jean-Marie; Ji, Weizhen; Ionita, Cristian; Roy, Bhaskar; Morrow, Jon S.; Darbinyan, Armine; Iyer, Krishna; Aul, Ritu B.; Banka, Siddharth; Chao, Katherine R.; Cobbold, Laura; Cohen, Stacey; Custodio, Helena M.; Drummond-Borg, Margaret; Elmslie, Frances; Finanger, Erika; Hainline, Bryan E.; Helbig, Ingo; Hewson, Stacy; Hu, Ying; Jackson, Adam; Josifova, Dragana; Konstantino, Monica; Leach, Meganne E.; Mak, Bryan; McCormick, David; McGee, Elisabeth; Nelson, Stanley; Nguyen, Joanne; Nugent, Kimberly; Ortega, Lucy; Goodkin, Howard P.; Roeder, Elizabeth; Roy, Sani; Sapp, Katie; Saade, Dimah; Sisodiya, Sanjay M.; Stals, Karen; Towner, Shelley; Wilson, William; Deciphering Developmental Disorders; Genomics England Research Consortium; Undiagnosed Disease Network; Khokha, Mustafa K.; Bönnemann, Carsten G.; Lucas, Carrie L.; Lakhani, Saquib A.; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    Purpose: We sought to delineate a multisystem disorder caused by recessive cysteine-rich with epidermal growth factor-like domains 1 (CRELD1) gene variants. Methods: The impact of CRELD1 variants was characterized through an international collaboration utilizing next-generation DNA sequencing, gene knockdown, and protein overexpression in Xenopus tropicalis, and in vitro analysis of patient immune cells. Results: Biallelic variants in CRELD1 were found in 18 participants from 14 families. Affected individuals displayed an array of phenotypes involving developmental delay, early-onset epilepsy, and hypotonia, with about half demonstrating cardiac arrhythmias and some experiencing recurrent infections. Most harbored a frameshift in trans with a missense allele, with 1 recurrent variant, p.(Cys192Tyr), identified in 10 families. X tropicalis tadpoles with creld1 knockdown displayed developmental defects along with increased susceptibility to induced seizures compared with controls. Additionally, human CRELD1 harboring missense variants from affected individuals had reduced protein function, indicated by a diminished ability to induce craniofacial defects when overexpressed in X tropicalis. Finally, baseline analyses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells showed similar proportions of immune cell subtypes in patients compared with healthy donors. Conclusion: This patient cohort, combined with experimental data, provide evidence of a multisystem clinical syndrome mediated by recessive variants in CRELD1.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    DNA-binding affinity and specificity determine the phenotypic diversity in BCL11B-related disorders
    (Elsevier, 2025) Lessel, Ivana; Baresic, Anja; Chinn, Ivan K.; May, Jonathan; Goenka, Anu; Chandler, Kate E.; Posey, Jennifer E.; Afenjar, Alexandra; Averdunk, Luisa; Bedeschi, Maria Francesca; Besnard, Thomas; Brager, Rae; Brick, Lauren; Brugger, Melanie; Brunet, Theresa; Byrne, Susan; de la Calle-Martín, Oscar; Capra, Valeria; Cardenas, Paul; Chappé, Céline; Chong, Hey J.; Cogne, Benjamin; Conboy, Erin; Cope, Heidi; Courtin, Thomas; Deb, Wallid; Dilena, Robertino; Dubourg, Christèle; Elgizouli, Magdeldin; Fernandes, Erica; Fitzgerald, Kristi K.; Gangi, Silvana; George-Abraham, Jaya K.; Gucsavas-Calikoglu, Muge; Haack, Tobias B.; Hadonou, Medard; Hanker, Britta; Hüning, Irina; Iascone, Maria; Isidor, Bertrand; Järvelä, Irma; Jin, Jay J.; Jorge, Alexander A. L.; Josifova, Dragana; Kalinauskiene, Ruta; Kamsteeg, Erik-Jan; Keren, Boris; Kessler, Elena; Kölbel, Heike; Kozenko, Mariya; Kubisch, Christian; Kuechler, Alma; Leal, Suzanne M.; Leppälä, Juha; Luu, Sharon M.; Lyon, Gholson J.; Madan-Khetarpal, Suneeta; Mancardi, Margherita; Marchi, Elaine; Mehta, Lakshmi; Menendez, Beatriz; Morel, Chantal F.; Moyer Harasink, Sue; Nevay, Dayna-Lynn; Nigro, Vincenzo; Odent, Sylvie; Oegema, Renske; Pappas, John; Pastore, Matthew T.; Perilla-Young, Yezmin; Platzer, Konrad; Powell-Hamilton, Nina; Rabin, Rachel; Rekab, Aisha; Rezende, Raissa C.; Robert, Leema; Romano, Ferruccio; Scala, Marcello; Poths, Karin; Schrauwen, Isabelle; Sebastian, Jessica; Short, John; Sidlow, Richard; Sullivan, Jennifer; Szakszon, Katalin; Tan, Queenie K. G.; Undiagnosed Diseases Network; Wagner, Matias; Wieczorek, Dagmar; Yuan, Bo; Maeding, Nicole; Strunk, Dirk; Begtrup, Amber; Banka, Siddharth; Lupski, James R.; Tolosa, Eva; Lessel, Davor; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    BCL11B is a Cys2-His2 zinc-finger (C2H2-ZnF) domain-containing, DNA-binding, transcription factor with established roles in the development of various organs and tissues, primarily the immune and nervous systems. BCL11B germline variants have been associated with a variety of developmental syndromes. However, genotype-phenotype correlations along with pathophysiologic mechanisms of selected variants mostly remain elusive. To dissect these, we performed genotype-phenotype correlations of 92 affected individuals harboring a pathogenic or likely pathogenic BCL11B variant, followed by immune phenotyping, analysis of chromatin immunoprecipitation DNA-sequencing data, dual-luciferase reporter assays, and molecular modeling. These integrative analyses enabled us to define three clinical subtypes of BCL11B-related disorders. It is likely that gene-disruptive BCL11B variants and missense variants affecting zinc-binding cysteine and histidine residues cause mild to moderate neurodevelopmental delay with increased propensity for behavioral and dental anomalies, allergies and asthma, and reduced type 2 innate lymphoid cells. Missense variants within C2H2-ZnF DNA-contacting α helices cause highly variable clinical presentations ranging from multisystem anomalies with demise in the first years of life to late-onset, hyperkinetic movement disorder with poor fine motor skills. Those not in direct DNA contact cause a milder phenotype through reduced, target-specific transcriptional activity. However, missense variants affecting C2H2-ZnFs, DNA binding, and "specificity residues" impair BCL11B transcriptional activity in a target-specific, dominant-negative manner along with aberrant regulation of alternative DNA targets, resulting in more severe and unpredictable clinical outcomes. Taken together, we suggest that the phenotypic severity and variability is largely dependent on the DNA-binding affinity and specificity of altered BCL11B proteins.