H3Africa is developing capacity for health-related genomics research in Africa

No abstract

Our current results are in agreement with the results previously reported by other groups showing that the number of fetal cells in maternal blood in trisomic 21 pregnancies is higher than in normal pregnancies. This high number of fetal cells is regarded as an advantage for the development of a noninvasive prenatal diagnostic test.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a neoplasia characterized by proliferation of a myeloid cell lineage and chromosome translocation t(9;22) (q34;q11.2). As in the case of most cancers, the average telomere length in CML cells is shorter than that in normal blood cells. However, there are currently no data available concerning specific individual telomere length in CML. Here, we studied telomere length on each chromosome arm of CML cells. In situ hybridization with peptide nucleic acid probes was performed on CML cells in metaphase. The fluorescence intensity of each specific telomere was converted into kilobases according to the telomere restriction fragment results for each sample. We found differences in telomere length between short arm ends and long arm ends. We observed recurrent telomere length changes as well as telomere length maintenance and elongation in some individual telomeres. We propose a possible involvement of individual telomere length changes to some chromosomal abnormalities in CML. We suggest that individual telomere length maintenance is chromosome arm-specific associated with leukemia cells.

Background Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth (CMT) disease is a very heterogeneous neurological condition with more than 90 reported genetic entities. It is the most common inherited peripheral neuropathy; however, cases are rarely reported in sub‐Saharan Africa. In addition, only few families, mostly of Caucasian ancestry, have been reported to have Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth disease type 2D (CMT2D) mutations. To date no case of CMT2D was reported in Africa. We present here a consanguineous family with CMT phenotype in which a novel mutation in the GARS (glycyl‐tRNA synthetase) gene was identified. Methods Patients were examined thoroughly and nerve conduction studies (NCS) were performed. DNA from the proband was used for CMT gene panel testing (including 50 genes, PMP22 duplication and mtDNA ). Putative mutations were verified in all available family members to check for segregation. Results Two individuals, a male and a female, were found to be affected. Symptoms started in their teenage years with muscle weakness and atrophy in hands. Later, distal involvement of the lower limbs was noticed. Patients complained of minor sensory impairment. NCS showed no response in the upper as well as the lower limbs. Genetic testing surprisingly identified a novel heterozygous missense mutation c.794C>A (p.Ser265Tyr) in the GARS gene associated with CMT2D. This variant segregated with the disease in the family and was also seen in the mother who presented no symptoms. Conclusion This is the first report of a genetically confirmed CMT2D case in Africa, expanding its genetic epidemiology. Increasing access to genetic testing may reveal more novel CMT variants or genes in the African population that could be relevant to other populations and further our understanding of their mechanism.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and manual scanning is a widely used strategy for retrieving rare cellular events such as fetal cells in maternal blood. In order to determine the efficiency of these techniques in detection of rare cells, slides of XX cells with predefined numbers (1–10) of XY cells were prepared. Following FISH hybridization, the slides were scanned blindly for the presence of XY cells by different observers. The average detection efficiency was 84% (125/148). Evaluation of probe hybridization in the missed events showed that 9% (2/23) were not hybridized, 17% (4/23) were poorly hybridized, while the hybridization was adequate for the remaining 74% (17/23). In conclusion, manual scanning is a relatively efficient method to recover rare cellular events, but about 16% of the events are missed; therefore, the number of fetal cells per unit volume of maternal blood has probably been underestimated when using manual scanning.

TP53 mutations are the most common mutations in human cancers, and TP53-R175H and TP53-R273H are the most frequent. The impact of these mutations on genomic instability after tumor initiation is still uncovered. To gain insight into this, we studied the effects of three specific TP53 mutants (TP53-V143A, TP53-R175H, and TP53-R273H) on genomic instability using four isogenic lines of LoVo cells. Multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), three-dimensional (3D) quantitative FISH (Q-FISH) on interphase and Q-FISH on metaphases were used to investigate genomic instability. We found that LoVo cells expressing mutant TP53-R175H displayed the highest level of chromosomal instability among the LoVo cell lines. Furthermore, we observed that mutant TP53-R175H and TP53-V143A showed more alterations in their 3D nuclear architecture of telomeres than the mutant TP53-R273H and the wild type. Moreover, we noted an association between some chromosomal abnormalities and telomere elongation in the mutant TP53-R175H. Taken together, our results indicate that the mutation TP53-R175H is more likely to cause higher levels of genomic instability than the other TP53 mutations. We proposed that the type of TP53 mutations and the genetic background of a cancer cell are major determinants of the TP53-dependent genomic instability.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a hematologic cancer characterized by the proliferation of myeloid cells and the translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22, [t(9;22)(q34.1;q11.2)]. At the chronic phase (CP), CML cells present longer telomeres than at the other clinical phases, display arm-specific maintenance of individual telomere lengths, and are chromosomally stable. We asked whether an alteration of nuclear organization of telomeres, which is associated with genomic instability, occurs in CML cells at the CP. We used fluorescent in situ hybridization of telomeres combined with three-dimensional (3D) quantification to study the nuclear telomeric architecture of CML cells at the CP. We found that cells can exhibit high telomere numbers, different telomere distributions, and alterations in peripheral or central nuclear location of telomeres. Also, we show that CML cells can be categorized in two groups according to the number of their telomere aggregates (TAs). We propose that the presence of high TAs in some samples is associated with the increased genomic instability and could be an indication of the clinical transitional phase. Also, alterations of nuclear organization of telomeres at the CP confirm that nuclear remodeling of telomeres can occur at an early clinical stage of a cancer.