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Biomedical subjects

L Beaufrère

Publications and source records attributed to L Beaufrère.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

[Molecular genetics of pigmentary retinopathies: identification of mutations in CHM, RDS, RHO, RPE65, USH2A and XLRS1 genes].

PURPOSE: To evaluate the occurrence and inheritance of various types of pigmentary retinopathy in patients followed at the outpatient clinic in the university hospital, Montpellier, France. To characterize genes and mutations causing these conditions. METHODS: Ophthalmic examination and various visual tests were performed. Mutations were sought from genomic DNA by PCR amplification of exons associated with single-strand conformation analysis and/or direct sequencing. RESULTS: Among 315 patients over an 8-year period, cases of retinitis pigmentosa (63.2%), Usher's syndrome (10.2%), Stargardt's disease (5.4%), choroideremia (3.2%), Leber's congenital amaurosis (3.2%), congenital stationary night blindness (2.9%), cone dystrophy (2.5%), dominant optic atrophy (1.9%), X-linked juvenile retinoschisis (1.6%), Best's disease (1.6%), and others (4.3%) were diagnosed. In retinitis pigmentosa, inheritance could be determined in 54.2% of the cases including dominant autosomic (26.6%), recessive autosomic (22.6%), and X-linked cases (5%) while it could not be confirmed in 45.7% of the cases (simplex cases in the majority). For the 6 examined genes, mutations were found in 22 out of 182 propositus (12.1%). Analysis of phenotype-genotype correlations indicates that in retinitis pigmentosa, RDS is more frequently associated with macular involvement and retinal flecks, RHO with regional disease, and RPE65 with the great severity of the disease with some cases of Leber's congenital amaurosis. CONCLUSIONS: Identification of genes may help in diagnosis and in genetic counseling, especially in simplex cases with retinitis pigmentosa. In this latter condition, molecular diagnosis will be necessary to rationalize future treatments.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

No missense mutation in choroideremia patients analyzed to date.

PURPOSE: To elucidate the status of a previously described missense mutation (1442A>T) reported in the Rab Escort Protein 1 gene of a patient with choroideremia. METHODS: The base substitution previously described by Donnelly et al. (Hum Mol Genet 1994;3:1017) was first confirmed by direct genomic DNA sequencing. The REP-1 cDNA region encompassing exons 10-14 was then specifically amplified from lymphocyte-derived mRNA. The effect on mRNA splicing of the mutation was analyzed by RT-PCR and cDNA sequencing. RESULTS: The 1442A>T change located at the penultimate nucleotide of exon 11 causes complete skipping of this exon during the processing of REP-1 mRNA. Loss of exon 11 leads to the translation of a premature termination codon within exon 12. CONCLUSION: RT-PCR analyses demonstrated that the 1442A>T transversion previously described as a possible causative missense mutation does act as a splice-site error and gives rise to a truncated REP-1 protein. The virtual absence of any missense mutation found to be responsible for choroideremia makes the RT-PCR-based protein truncation test the most relevant genotypic diagnostic procedure for identifying mutations in the CHM gene.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

Altered rep-1 expression due to substitution at position +3 of the IVS13 splice-donor site of the choroideremia (CHM) gene.

PURPOSE: To characterize the effect on mRNA splicing of a yet undescribed mutation located in intron 13 splice-donor sequence (IVS13 + 3A --> C) in the Rab-Escort-protein 1 gene of a patient with choroideremia. METHODS: The base substitution was firstly detected by the Single Strand conformation analysis from genomic DNA. A REP-1 cDNA region encompassing exons 10-14 was then specifically amplified from lymphocytes-derived mRNA. RESULTS: We could demonstrate that this substitution affects REP-1 RNA processing. The patient revealed only one aberrantly spliced mRNA lacking exon 13 and no normal transcript. CONCLUSION: The skipping of exon 13 results in the creation of a stop codon at the misspliced junction. This is the first case of nucleotide substitution at the +3 position of a splice donor site so far described in choroideremia.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

The protein truncation test (PTT) as a method of detection for choroideremia mutations.

The predominance of truncative mutations responsible for choroideremia (CHM) led us to investigate the use of the protein truncation test (PTT) applied to lymphocyte RNA derived from affected males as a scanning method. The entire CHM coding region was reversed-transcribed in three overlapping cDNA segments (RT-PCR) which were amplified and further analysed by PTT after in vitro transcription/ translation. This strategy enabled us to detect the CHM-causative alteration in each of the four unrelated patients from southern France who were investigated. We describe three novel mutations (E177X, 323delT, 1313delTC), and report one recurrent mutation (R267X) in CHM. We believe this to be the first attempt at applying RT-PCR-PTT to CHM mutation detection.

Choroideremia↗

[Rapid genetic diagnosis of females carriers related to patients with choroideremia].

PURPOSE: By using the single strand conformation analysis to search for point mutations in the choroideremia gene, we had previously identified the first truncative mutation responsible for CHM in France. The aim of the present study was to perform a simple and nonisotopic routine test to identify carriers and non carriers in the relevant family. METHODS: We used a PCR-based restriction analysis to detect the presence or absence of the mutation in the family members, as the mutation creates a restriction site in the coding sequence of the CHM gene. RESULTS: We could follow the segregation of the mutation in the pedigree, and unambiguously determine the genetic status of the females. CONCLUSION: When a mutation responsible for choroideremia modifies a restriction site, the PCR-restriction provides an efficient and unexpensive one-day test to detect heterozygosity in the family.

Carrier State↗

Direct estimation of the recombination frequency between the RB1 gene and two closely linked microsatellites using sperm typing.

In this study, single sperm typing has been used for high-resolution recombination analysis between the retinoblastoma gene and two closely linked extragenic microsatellites (D13S284 and D13S1307). The analysis of 1198 single sperm from three donors allowed the determination of recombination fractions between RB1.20 and D13S284 and RB1.20 and D13S1307 of 0.022 and 0.033, respectively. These results show that RB1 gene and the two microsatellites are closely linked, which validates their potential use in indirect genetic diagnosis of retinoblastoma.

Genetic Linkage↗