Clinical and biochemical spectrum of metabolic cardiomyopathy in Egyptian children.

Background: Inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) commonly present with pediatric cardiomyopathy. Identification of the underlying cause is necessary as it may lead to improved outcomes. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the diagnostic rate, the clinical, and biochemical spectra of IEMs among Egyptian pediatric patients presenting with cardiomyopathy, and their outcome measures. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical, biochemical, and radiological data of 1512 children diagnosed with cardiomyopathy at Cairo University Children's Hospital over a 5-year duration. Results: Two hundred twenty-nine children were clinically suspected as IEMs and underwent metabolic workup. Nineteen different IEMs were confirmed in 57 (24.4%) of the suspected children. Their median age at presentation was 2.6 years and the majority had extra-cardiac manifestations. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy represented 43/57 (75.4%) of confirmed cases, while dilated cardiomyopathy represented 13/57 (22.8%), and one patient presented with a mixed phenotype. Twenty- six patients (45.6%) survived, while 31 patients (54%) either died or were lost to follow up and assumed deceased. Conclusions: We developed for the first time a database and a diagnostic scheme for metabolic cardiomyopathies in Egyptian children. With the recent introduction of enzyme replacement therapy, many metabolic disorders became treatable, thus establishing an early and accurate diagnosis is extremely important.

Whole-genome sequencing of human Pegivirus variant from an Egyptian patient co-infected with hepatitis C virus: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Human pegivirus (HPgV) is structurally similar to hepatitis C virus (HCV) and was discovered 20 years ago. Its distribution, natural history and exact rule of this viral group in human hosts remain unclear. Our aim was to determine, by deep next-generation sequencing (NGS), the entire genome sequence of HPgV that was discovered in an Egyptian patient while analyzing HCV sequence from the same patient. We also inspected whether the co-infection of HCV and HPgV will affect the patient response to HCV viral treatment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report for a newly isolated HPgV in an Egyptian patient who is co-infected with HCV. CASE PRESENTATION: The deep Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technique was used to detect HCV sequence in hepatitis C patient's plasma. The results revealed the presence of HPgV with HCV. This co-infection was confirmed using conventional PCR of the HPgV 5' untranslated region. The patient was then subjected to direct-acting-antiviral treatment (DAA). At the end of the treatment, the patient showed a good response to the HCV treatment (i.e., no HCV-RNA was detected in the plasma), while the HPgV-RNA was still detected. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that the detected HPgV was a novel isolate and was not previously published. CONCLUSION: We report a new variant of HPgV in a patient suffering from hepatitis C viral infection.

Mutation spectrum of Egyptian children with cystic fibrosis.

OBJECTIVE: To know the common CFTR mutations in the Egyptian patients with cystic fibrosis as it was previously thought to be uncommon disease in Egypt. METHODS: This is a cross sectional study of 60 patients diagnosed as cystic fibrosis by sweat chloride testing. They were enrolled from the Allergy and Pulmonology Unit Children's Hospital Cairo University. They were screened for the presence of the frequent 36 mutations in Caucasians by reverse hybridization line probe technique, using INNO-LiPACFTR19 and CFTR17 + Tn kits. RESULTS: Most of patients presented with classic manifestations of CF such as variable pulmonary disease and pancreatic insufficiency, and hepatomegaly with or without ascites. The mutations detected were F508 del (58 %), 2183AA/G (10 %), N1303K (6 %), I148T (4 %), W1282X (4 %), G155D (2 %), CFTRdel2-3 (21 KB) (2 %), 3199del6 (2 %), R347P (2 %). Unique to the Egyptian population are these mutations R1162X and A544E (6, 4 %) respectively they were found in our cohort study and were not reported elsewhere in the Arab population till now. There was no association between the initial clinical presentation of CF and the genotypes detected. CONCLUSION: The F508 del is still the most commonly encountered mutation (58 %), however other rare mutations were identified where each ranged from (2 to 10 %).

Validation of a semiconductor next-generation sequencing assay for the clinical genetic screening of CFTR.

Genetic testing for cystic fibrosis and CFTR-related disorders mostly relies on laborious molecular tools that use Sanger sequencing to scan for mutations in the CFTR gene. We have explored a more efficient genetic screening strategy based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) of the CFTR gene. We validated this approach in a cohort of 177 patients with previously known CFTR mutations and polymorphisms. Genomic DNA was amplified using the Ion AmpliSeq™ CFTR panel. The DNA libraries were pooled, barcoded, and sequenced using an Ion Torrent PGM sequencer. The combination of different robust bioinformatics tools allowed us to detect previously known pathogenic mutations and polymorphisms in the 177 samples, without detecting spurious pathogenic calls. In summary, the assay achieves a sensitivity of 94.45% (95% CI: 92% to 96.9%), with a specificity of detecting nonvariant sites from the CFTR reference sequence of 100% (95% CI: 100% to 100%), a positive predictive value of 100% (95% CI: 100% to 100%), and a negative predictive value of 99.99% (95% CI: 99.99% to 100%). In addition, we describe the observed allelic frequencies of 94 unique definitely and likely pathogenic, uncertain, and neutral CFTR variants, some of them not previously annotated in the public databases. Strikingly, a seven exon spanning deletion as well as several more technically challenging variants such as pathogenic poly-thymidine-guanine and poly-thymidine (poly-TG-T) tracts were also detected. Targeted NGS is ready to substitute classical molecular methods to perform genetic testing on the CFTR gene.

New insights on iron study in myelodysplasia.

OBJECTIVE: Hepcidin plays a pivotal role in iron homeostasis. It is predominantly produced by hepatocytes and inhibits iron release from macrophages and iron uptake by intestinal epithelial cells. Competitive ELISA is the current method of choice for the quantification of serum hepcidin because of its lower detection limit, low costs, and high throughput. This study aims to discuss the role of hepcidin in the pathogenesis of iron overload in recently diagnosed myelodysplasia (MDS) cases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 21 recently diagnosed MDS patients and 13 healthy controls. Ferritin, hepcidin, and soluble transferrin receptor (sTFR) were measured in all subjects. RESULTS: There were 7 cases of hypocellular MDS, 8 cases of refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia, and 6 cases of refractory anemia with excess blasts. No difference was observed among the 3 MDS subtypes in terms of hepcidin, sTFR, and ferritin levels (p>0.05). Mean hepcidin levels in the MDS and control groups were 55.8±21.5 ng/mL and 19.9±2.6 ng/mL, respectively. Mean sTFR was 45.7±8.8 nmol/L in MDS patients and 31.1±5.6 nmol/L in the controls. Mean ferritin levels were significantly higher in MDS patients than in controls (539.14±83.5 ng/mL vs. 104.6±42.9 ng/mL, p<0.005). There was a statistically significant correlation between hepcidin and sTFR (r=0.45, p=0.039). No difference in hepcidin levels between males and females was observed, although it was lower in males in comparison to females (47.9±27.6 vs. 66.7±35.7, p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Hepcidin may not be the main cause of iron overload in MDS. Further studies are required to test failure of production or peripheral unresponsiveness to hepcidin in MDS cases.