Over the past two decades, there have been two major outbreaks where the crossover of animal Betacoronaviruses to humans has resulted in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). In December 2019, a global public health concern started with the emergence of a new strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 or 2019 novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV) which has rapidly spread all over the world from its origin in Wuhan, China. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the Betacoronavirus genus, which includes human SARS-CoV, MERS and two other human coronaviruses (HCoVs), HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-HKU1. The fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 is lower than the two previous coronavirus epidemics, but it is faster spreading and the large number of infected people with severe viral pneumonia and respiratory illness, showed SARS-CoV-2 to be highly contagious. Based on the current published evidence, herein we summarize the origin, genetics, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, preventions, diagnosis and up to date treatments of SARS-CoV-2 infections in comparison with those caused by SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Moreover, the possible impact of weather conditions on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is also discussed. Therefore, the aim of the present review is to reconsider the two previous pandemics and provide a reference for future studies as well as therapeutic approaches.

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and type of congenital heart disease (CHD) and the associated mutation spectrum in a large series of patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), and correlate the mutation type with the presence and subgroups of cardiac defects. The study cohort included 493 individuals with molecularly confirmed diagnosis of NF1 for whom cardiac evaluation data were available. CHD was reported in 62/493 (12.6%) patients. Among these patients, 23/62 (37.1%) had pulmonary valve stenosis/dysplasia, 20/62 (32.3%) had mitral valve anomalies, and 10/62 (16.1%) had septal defects. Other defects occurred as rare events. In this NF1 subcohort, three subjects carried a whole-gene deletion, while 59 were heterozygous for an intragenic mutation. A significantly increased prevalence of non-truncating intragenic mutations was either observed in individuals with CHD (22/59, 37.3%) or with pulmonary valve stenosis (13/20, 65.0%), when compared to individuals without CHD (89/420, 21.2%) (p = 0.038) or pulmonary valve stenosis (98/459, 21.4%) (p = 0.002). Similarly, patients with non-truncating NF1 mutations displayed two- and six-fold higher risk of developing CHD (odds ratio = 1.9713, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.1162–3.4814, p = 0.0193) and pulmonary valve stenosis (odds ratio = 6.8411, 95% CI: 2.6574–17.6114, p = 0.0001), respectively. Noteworthy, all but one patient (19/20, 95.0%) with pulmonary valve stenosis, and 18/35 (51.4%) patients with other CHDs displayed Noonan syndrome (NS)-like features. Present data confirm the significant frequency of CHD in patients with NF1, and provide further evidence for a higher than expected prevalence of NF1 in-frame variants and NS-like characteristics in NF1 patients with CHD, particularly with pulmonary valve stenosis.

Atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) may occur as part of a complex disorder (e.g., Down syndrome, heterotaxy), or as isolate cardiac defect. Multiple lines of evidence support a role of calcineurin/NFAT signaling in AVSD, and mutations in CRELD1, a protein functioning as a regulator of calcineurin/NFAT signaling have been reported in a small fraction of affected subjects. In this study, 22 patients with isolated AVSD and 38 with AVSD and heterotaxy were screened for NFATC1 gene mutations. Sequence analysis identified three missense variants in three individuals, including a subject with isolated AVSD [p.(Ala367Val)], an individual with AVSD and heterotaxy [p.(Val210Met)], and a subject with AVSD, heterotaxy, and oculo-auriculo-vertebral spectrum (OAVS) [p.(Ala696Thr)], respectively. The latter was also heterozygous for a missense change in TBX1 [p.(Pro86Leu)]. Targeted resequencing of genes associated with AVSD, heterotaxy, or OAVS excluded additional hits in the three mutation-positive subjects. Functional characterization of NFATC1 mutants documented defective nuclear translocation and decreased transcriptional transactivation activity. When expressed in zebrafish, the three NFATC1 mutants caused cardiac looping defects and altered atrioventricular canal patterning, providing evidence of their functional relevance in vivo. Our findings support a role of defective NFATC1 function in the etiology of isolated and heterotaxy-related AVSD.

Metastatic lesions leading causes of the majority of deaths in patients with the breast cancer. The present study aimed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the brain (MDA-MB-231 BrM2) and lung (MDA-MB-231 LM2) metastatic cell lines obtained from breast cancer patients compared with those who have primary breast cancer. We identified 981 and 662 DEGs for brain and lung metastasis, respectively. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis revealed seven shared (PLCB1, FPR1, FPR2, CX3CL1, GABBR2, GPR37, and CXCR4) hub genes between brain and lung metastasis in breast cancer. Moreover, GNG2 and CXCL8, C3, and PTPN6 in the brain and SAA1 and CCR5 in lung metastasis were found as unique hub genes. Besides, five co-regulation of clusters via seven important co-expression genes (COL1A2, LUM, SPARC, THBS2, IL1B, CXCL8, THY1) were identified in the brain PPI network. Clusters screening followed by biological process (BP) function and pathway enrichment analysis for both metastatic cell lines showed that complement receptor signalling, acetylcholine receptor signalling, and gastric acid secretion pathways were common between these metastases, whereas other pathways were site-specific. According to our findings, there are a set of genes and functional pathways that mark and mediate breast cancer metastasis to the brain and lungs, which may enable us understand the molecular basis of breast cancer development in a deeper levele to the brain and lungs, which may help us gain a more complete understanding of the molecular underpinnings of breast cancer development.

Warburg Micro syndrome and Martsolf syndrome are phenotypically overlapping autosomal recessive conditions characterized by multiple organ abnormalities involving the ocular, nervous, and endocrine systems. Warburg Micro syndrome, the more severe of the two conditions, is caused by loss of function mutations in RAB3GAP1, RAB3GAP2, RAB18, and TBC1D20 genes, whereas Martsolf syndrome has been attributed to less damaging mutations in RAB3GAP1 and RAB3GAP2 genes. We report the clinical description and molecular characterization of a consanguineous Iranian family with two siblings, a male and a female, with dysmorphic features, bilateral congenital cataracts, optic nerve atrophy, congenital glaucoma, mild to moderate intellectual disability, seizures, hypogonadism, and mild osteoporosis. Spastic quadri-

Oculo‐auriculo‐vertebral spectrum (OAVS) is a developmental disorder of craniofacial morphogenesis. Its etiology is unclear, but assumed to be complex and heterogeneous, with contribution of both genetic and environmental factors. We assessed the occurrence of copy number variants (CNVs) in a cohort of 19 unrelated OAVS individuals with congenital heart defect. Chromosomal microarray analysis identified pathogenic CNVs in 2/19 (10.5%) individuals, and CNVs classified as variants of uncertain significance in 7/19 (36.9%) individuals. Remarkably, two subjects had small intragenic CNVs involving DACH1 and DACH2, two paralogs coding for key components of the PAX‐SIX‐EYA‐DACH network, a transcriptional regulatory pathway controlling developmental processes relevant to OAVS and causally associated with syndromes characterized by craniofacial involvement. Moreover, a third patient showed a large duplication encompassing DMBX1/OTX3, encoding a transcriptional repressor of OTX2, another transcription factor functionally connected to the DACH‐EYA‐PAX network. Among the other relevant CNVs, a deletion encompassing HSD17B6, a gene connected with the retinoic acid signaling pathway, whose dysregulation has been implicated in craniofacial malformations, was also identified. Our findings suggest that CNVs affecting gene dosage likely contribute to the genetic heterogeneity of OAVS, and implicate the PAX‐SIX‐EYA‐DACH network as novel pathway involved in the etiology of this developmental trait.

Breast cancer (BC) is a major human health problem due to its increasing incidence and mortality rate. CC and CXC chemokines are associated with tumorigenesis and the progression of many cancers. Since the prognostic values of CC and CXC families' expression in various types of cancers are becoming increasingly evident, we aimed to conduct a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis elucidating the prognostic values of the CC and CXC families in BC. Therefore, TCGA, UALCAN, Kaplan–Meier plotter, bc-GenExMiner, cBioPortal, STRING, Enrichr, and TIMER were utilized for analysis. We found that high levels of CCL4/5/14/19/21/22 were associated with better OS and RFS, while elevated expression of CCL24 was correlated with shorter OS in BC patients. Also, high levels of CXCL9/13 indicated longer OS, and enhanced expression of CXCL12/14 was linked with better OS and RFS in BC patients. Meanwhile, increased transcription levels of CXCL8 were associated with worse OS and RFS in BC patients. In addition, our results showed that CCL5, CCL8, CCL14, CCL20, CCL27, CXCL4, and CXCL14 were notably correlated with the clinical outcomes of BC patients. Our findings provide a new point of view that may help the clinical application of CC and CXC chemokines as prognostic biomarkers in BC.

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