Conventional wisdom. Trio whole exome sequencing has been successful over the last five years in identifying underlying genetic etiologies in nearly 50% of patients with epileptic encephalopathies, which is largely owing to the genetic architecture of these conditions. The vast majority of these genetic epilepsies are caused by apparent de novo variants that are present in the patient but not in the mother or father. The conventional wisdom is that the recurrence risk in future pregnancies for parents of an affected child is low to non-existent and traditionally we have quoted a ~1% recurrence risk for future pregnancies. However, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine turns this conventional wisdom on its head, identifying detectable somatic mosaicism in approximately 10% of parents tested, which has implications for how we counsel families of children with epileptic encephalopathies – and potentially other genetic conditions due to de novo variants as well. Continue reading
Tag Archives: de novo mutation
Galanin mutations in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Transmitted. When we think about epilepsy-related neurotransmitters, we often limit ourselves to the most prominent transmitters in the Central Nervous System, namely glutamate, GABA and to some extent acetylcholine. However, besides these classical transmitters, there are more than 100 small peptides released in the mammalian brain, which are referred to neuropeptides. Here is the story of galanin, the first neuropeptide in epilepsy genetics. Continue reading
A genetic counselor’s wish list for epilepsy genetics in 2015
Mt. Rainier. After our recent posts about the 2014 AES in Seattle, we received an email from Beth in Boston, highlighting some of the issues that genetic counselor face in epilepsy genetics when dealing with next gen sequencing data. Beth drew up a wish list for 2015 and asked us for comments. Here is a brief discussion between Beth and me on how high throughput epilepsy genetics sometimes comes to grinding halt in clinical practice. Continue reading
Beyond the Ion Channel – and back
Where do all the ion channels come from? I would like to start off with a brief commentary about the current state of gene discovery in human epilepsy. Some of our readers rightfully took offense to my previous statement that gene discovery in epilepsy it over – quite the contrary is true, and I apologize for any confusion that I may have caused. Gene discovery in epilepsy is one of the few areas of human genetics with an ongoing, rapid sequence of gene discovery with a tremendous translational potential. But we also need to reconsider the name of this blog – we are far from being beyond the ion channel. The ion channel concept has made a remarkable return in human epilepsy genetics. Let’s find out why. Continue reading
SETBP1, ZMYND11, and the power of joint exome and CNV analysis
Parallel worlds. There are two fields of genetics for neurodevelopmental disorders that currently produce large amounts of data – the field of copy number variation analysis and the field of exome sequencing. When assigning pathogenicity, information from both genetic technologies are rarely considered jointly. A recent study in Nature Genetics now performs a combined analysis of a large CNV and exome datasets in intellectual disability and autism. Interestingly, this method produces robust results, highlighting novel causative genes. Continue reading
The 1003 possible autism genes – a matter of constraint
Overview. There have been numerous publications on de novo mutations in autism and intellectual disability over the last three years. Many of these studies struggle to distinguish signal from noise, and the plethora of findings leaves the reader wondering which genes are bona fide autism genes and in which cases the evidence is limited. A recent paper in Nature Genetics uses a new metric to assess expected versus observed de novo mutations in more than published 1000 autism patient-parent trios – and the answers appear to be straightforward. Continue reading
Critical brain-expressed exons and de novo mutations in autism
Selection. De novo mutations in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism, schizophrenia, and intellectual disability raise an important question: are the mutations identified in patients pathogenic or are they simply genomic noise? A recent study in Nature Genetics tries to answer this question by looking at expression of particular exons in the brain and the overall mutational burden in these exons. They come up with critical exons, which seem to be particularly vulnerable in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Continue reading
Infantile Spasms/Lennox-Gastaut genetics goes transatlantic
Joining forces. The EuroEPINOMICS-RES consortium and Epi4K/EPGP are currently joining forces for genetic studies on epileptic encephalopathies. A first collaborative study focuses on de novo mutations in Infantile Spasms and Lennox-Gastaut-Syndrome. In the last two years, after decades of disappointment, we have finally managed to accomplish a breakthrough in understanding the genetic basis of epileptic encephalopathies. The method of trio-based exome sequencing works amazingly well to identify the genetic cause, and the field currently has the crucial momentum to reach the next level of research. Let’s briefly review why we need international collaborations to disentangle the genetic architecture of the epileptic encephalopathies. Continue reading
