1. Germline pathogenic variants in HNRNPU are associated with alterations in blood methylome
- Author
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Lee, Sunwoo, Ochoa, Eguzkine, Badura-Stronka, Magdalena, Donnelly, Deirdre, Lederer, Damien, Lynch, Sally A., Gardham, Alice, Morton, Jenny, Stewart, Helen, Docquier, France, Rodger, Fay, Martin, Ezequiel, Toribio, Ana, Maher, Eamonn R., Balasubramanian, Meena, Lee, Sunwoo, Ochoa, Eguzkine, Badura-Stronka, Magdalena, Donnelly, Deirdre, Lederer, Damien, Lynch, Sally A., Gardham, Alice, Morton, Jenny, Stewart, Helen, Docquier, France, Rodger, Fay, Martin, Ezequiel, Toribio, Ana, Maher, Eamonn R., and Balasubramanian, Meena
- Abstract
HNRNPU encodes a multifunctional RNA-binding protein that plays critical roles in regulating pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA stability, and translation. Aberrant expression and dysregulation of HNRNPU have been implicated in various human diseases, including cancers and neurological disorders. We applied a next generation sequencing based assay (EPIC-NGS) to investigate genome-wide methylation profiling for >2 M CpGs for 7 individuals with a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with HNRNPU germline pathogenic loss-of-function variants. Compared to healthy individuals, 227 HNRNPU-associated differentially methylated positions were detected. Both hyper- and hypomethylation alterations were identified but the former predominated. The identification of a methylation episignature for HNRNPU-associated neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) implicates HNPRNPU-related chromatin alterations in the aetiopathogenesis of this disorder and suggests that episignature profiling should have clinical utility as a predictor for the pathogenicity of HNRNPU variants of uncertain significance. The detection of a methylation episignaure for HNRNPU-associated NDD is consistent with a recent report of a methylation episignature for HNRNPK-associated NDD.
- Published
- 2023