Browsing by Author "Kurtz-Nelson, Evangeline C."

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    Characterizing the autism spectrum phenotype in DYRK1A-related syndrome
    (Wiley, 2023) Kurtz-Nelson, Evangeline C.; Rea, Hannah M.; Petriceks, Aiva C.; Hudac, Caitlin M.; Wang, Tianyun; Earl, Rachel K.; Bernier, Raphael A.; Eichler, Evan E.; Neuhaus, Emily; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Likely gene-disrupting (LGD) variants in DYRK1A are causative of DYRK1A syndrome and associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). While many individuals with DYRK1A syndrome are diagnosed with ASD, they may present with a unique profile of ASD traits. We present a comprehensive characterization of the ASD profile in children and young adults with LGDs in DYRK1A. Individuals with LGD variants in DYRK1A (n = 29) were compared to children who had ASD with no known genetic cause, either with low nonverbal IQ (n = 14) or average or above nonverbal IQ (n = 41). ASD was assessed using the ADOS-2, ADI-R, SRS-2, SCQ, and RBS-R. Quantitative score comparisons were conducted, as were qualitative analyses of clinicians' behavioral observations. Diagnosis of ASD was confirmed in 85% and ID was confirmed in 89% of participants with DYRK1A syndrome. Individuals with DYRK1A syndrome showed broadly similar social communication behaviors to children with idiopathic ASD and below-average nonverbal IQ, with specific challenges noted in social reciprocity and nonverbal communication. Children with DYRK1A syndrome also showed high rates of sensory-seeking behaviors. Phenotypic characterization of individuals with DYRK1A syndrome may provide additional information on mechanisms contributing to co-occurring ASD and ID and contribute to the identification of genetic predictors of specific ASD traits.
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    De novo variants in genes regulating stress granule assembly associate with neurodevelopmental disorders
    (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2022) Jia, Xiangbin; Zhang, Shujie; Tan, Senwei; Du, Bing; He, Mei; Qin, Haisong; Chen, Jia; Duan, Xinyu; Luo, Jingsi; Chen, Fei; Ouyang, Luping; Wang, Jian; Chen, Guodong; Yu, Bin; Zhang, Ge; Zhang, Zimin; Lyu, Yongqing; Huang, Yi; Jiao, Jian; Chen, Jin Yun (Helen); Swoboda, Kathryn J.; Agolini, Emanuele; Novelli, Antonio; Leoni, Chiara; Zampino, Giuseppe; Cappuccio, Gerarda; Brunetti-Pierri, Nicola; Gerard, Benedicte; Ginglinger, Emmanuelle; Richer, Julie; McMillan, Hugh; White-Brown, Alexandre; Hoekzema, Kendra; Bernier, Raphael A.; Kurtz-Nelson, Evangeline C.; Earl, Rachel K.; Meddens, Claartje; Alders, Marielle; Fuchs, Meredith; Caumes, Roseline; Brunelle, Perrine; Smol, Thomas; Kuehl, Ryan; Day-Salvatore, Debra-Lynn; Monaghan, Kristin G.; Morrow, Michelle M.; Eichler, Evan E.; Hu, Zhengmao; Yuan, Ling; Tan, Jieqiong; Xia, Kun; Shen, Yiping; Guo, Hui; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Stress granules (SGs) are cytoplasmic assemblies in response to a variety of stressors. We report a new neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) with common features of language problems, intellectual disability, and behavioral issues caused by de novo likely gene-disruptive variants in UBAP2L, which encodes an essential regulator of SG assembly. Ubap2l haploinsufficiency in mouse led to social and cognitive impairments accompanied by disrupted neurogenesis and reduced SG formation during early brain development. On the basis of data from 40,853 individuals with NDDs, we report a nominally significant excess of de novo variants within 29 genes that are not implicated in NDDs, including 3 essential genes (G3BP1, G3BP2, and UBAP2L) in the core SG interaction network. We validated that NDD-related de novo variants in newly implicated and known NDD genes, such as CAPRIN1, disrupt the interaction of the core SG network and interfere with SG formation. Together, our findings suggest the common SG pathology in NDDs.
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    Rhythmic Attentional Sampling in Autism
    (Wiley, 2023) Fan, Xiaoxu; Kolodny, Tamar; Woodard, Kristin M.; Tasevac, Aydin; Ganz, Wesley R.; Rea, Hannah; Kurtz-Nelson, Evangeline C.; Webb, Sara Jane; Murray, Scott O.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Individuals diagnosed with autism often display alterations in visual spatial attention toward visual stimuli, but the underlying cause of these differences remains unclear. Recent evidence has demonstrated that covert spatial attention, rather than remaining constant at a cued location, samples stimuli rhythmically at a frequency of 4-8 Hz (theta). Here we tested whether rhythmic sampling of attention is altered in autism. Participants were asked to monitor three locations to detect a brief target presented 300-1200 ms after a spatial cue. Visual attention was oriented to the cue and modified visual processing at the cued location, consistent with previous studies. We measured detection performance at different cue-target intervals when the target occurred at the cued location. Significant oscillations in detection performance were identified using both a traditional time-shuffled approach and a new autoregressive surrogate method developed by Brookshire in 2022. We found that attention enhances behavioral performance rhythmically at the same frequency in both autism and control group at the cued location. However, rhythmic temporal structure was not observed in a subgroup of autistic individuals with co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Our results imply that intrinsic brain rhythms which organize neural activity into alternating attentional states is functional in autistic individuals, but may be altered in autistic participants who have a concurrent ADHD diagnosis.