USP9X, Ubiquitin, and the PRICKLE interactome

PRICKLE. There are some genes implicated in human epilepsies that we have a hard time making sense of. PRICKLE1, implicated in a recessive progressive myoclonus epilepsy, is one of these genes. In a recent publication in PLoS Genetics, the interactome of the enigmatic PRICKLE proteins is explored. The authors rediscover an almost forgotten gene implicated in intellectual disability. Continue reading

The ARX problem – how an epilepsy gene escapes exome sequencing

Silence. You might wonder why you hear very little about ARX in exome studies these days. The X-chromosomal aristaless related homeobox gene was one of the first genes for epilepsies and brain malformations to be discovered. Mutations in ARX can be identified in male patients with a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders including idiopathic West Syndrome – accordingly, it’s on the differential list for patients with Infantile Spasms without a known cause. Let me tell you about the problems that the ARX gene poses for exome sequencing. Continue reading

PGAP2 mutations and intellectual disability with elevated alkaline phosphatase

Red flags. Despite the availability of a large panel of metabolic and genetic tests as well as high-resolution neuroimaging, the cause of disease in the vast majority of patients remains unknown. This situation also applies for intellectual disability, where there is little to offer in terms of diagnostic procedures once patients are negative for array comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH). In clinical practice, we often hope that some minor clinical or biochemical features may lead us to the correct diagnosis, but in the majority of cases, these investigations lead nowhere. Now, in two back-to-back publications in the American Journal of Human Genetics, two papers describe PGAP2 mutations in patients with non-syndromal intellectual disability with elevated alkaline phosphatase.  Continue reading