Ryo Honda | PubMed Health

PubMed2026

Digenic HNF1A and ABCC8 variants provide mechanistic insight into early-onset diabetes.

CONTEXT: Oligogenic inheritance in maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) remains poorly characterized, and the contribution of multiple candidate variants to disease pathogenesis is incompletely understood. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the pathogenicity and mechanistic contribution of multiple MODY gene variants identified in a MODY-like family and determine their role in early-onset diabetes. METHODS: Comprehensive genetic analysis of known MODY genes was performed in a MODY-like family. Functional effects of HNF1A and HNF1B variants were assessed using luciferase reporter assays in HEK293T cells. Functional characterization of ABCC8 variants included Kir6.2-dependent thallium (Tl+) flux assays, sulfonylurea responsiveness, and channel stability. RESULTS: Four variants in 3 MODY genes were identified in the proband: novel HNF1A p.Ser551Lysfs*2, HNF1B p.Glu102Ala, and ABCC8 p.Arg298Cys and p.Arg521Gln. Functional analysis showed that HNF1A p.Ser551Lysfs*2 retained approximately 5% of wild-type transactivation activity, consistent with loss-of-function, whereas HNF1B p.Glu102Ala and ABCC8 p.Arg521Gln exhibited wild-type-like function. In contrast, ABCC8 p.Arg298Cys reduced channel activity to 77% of wild-type levels while preserving sulfonylurea responsiveness. Segregation analysis identified HNF1A p.Ser551Lysfs*2 and ABCC8 p.Arg298Cys in affected parents. The proband, who inherited both pathogenic variants, developed diabetes earlier than either parent and was exposed to maternal hyperglycemia in utero, which may also have contributed to this early onset. CONCLUSION: Functional characterization distinguishes pathogenic from variants of unknown significance and supports digenic inheritance of HNF1A and ABCC8. Their additive effects, together with intrauterine hyperglycemia, likely accelerated disease onset. This study provides mechanistic evidence for oligogenic contributions to MODY and expands the genetic architecture of early-onset diabetes.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

Optimization of a Semi-nested PCR Protocol for Amplifying the Entire Spike Protein Region to Identify SARS-CoV-2 Variants in Wastewater.

Wastewater-based monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens is a widely adopted tool for assessing epidemic dynamics. While quantitative assays are commonly used to estimate infection levels in catchment populations, phylogenetic information-such as identifying circulating variants-is also crucial for public health. However, applying the widely used ARTIC protocol for full-genome sequencing to wastewater samples has proven challenging, likely due to the limited specificity and sensitivity of multiplex RT-PCR in such complex matrices. In this study, we developed and optimized a semi-nested RT-PCR assay targeting the full S-protein coding region (~4000 bases) for phylogenetic characterization of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. By reducing multiplexing and using single-plex reactions for both RT and PCR steps, we successfully amplified ~2000 bp fragments. Amplicons were sequenced using the Flongle Flow Cell platform. The optimized method-consisting of reverse transcription with specific primers followed by three parallel single-plex semi-nested PCRs-yielded over 1,000 SARS-CoV-2-like reads per primer set in 30 out of 39 wastewater samples in treatment plants in Japan, including those with <10 copies per analyte. Variant proportions were estimated using a newly developed approach based on single-nucleotide variant pattern matrix, revealing the presence of multiple co-circulating variants, including XBB lineages, JN.1, and notably BA.2.75, which was undetected in domestic clinical surveillance. These results highlight the effectiveness of our approach for detecting temporal shifts in SARS-CoV-2 variants, even at low RNA concentrations.

Polymerase Chain Reaction↗