Whole-exome sequencing in searching for novel variants associated with the development of high altitude pulmonary edema.

Background: High altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is a high-altitude idiopathic disease with serious consequences due to hypoxia at high altitude, and there is individual genetic susceptibility. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) is an effective tool for studying the genetic etiology of HAPE and can identify potentially novel mutations that may cause protein instability and may contribute to the development of HAPE.
Materials and Methods: A total of 50 unrelated HAPE patients were examined using WES, and the available bioinformatics tools were used to perform an analysis of exonic regions. Using the Phenolyzer program, disease candidate gene analysis was carried out. SIFT, PolyPhen-2, Mutation Taster, CADD, DANN, and I-Mutant software were used to assess the effects of genetic variations on protein function.
Results: The results showed that rs368502694 (p. R1022Q) located in NOS3, rs1595850639 (p. G61S) located in MYBPC3, and rs1367895529 (p. R333H) located in ITGAV were correlated with a high risk of HAPE, and thus could be regarded as potential genetic variations associated with HAPE.
Conclusion: WES was used in this study for the first time to directly screen genetic variations related to HAPE. Notably, our study offers fresh information for the subsequent investigation into the etiology of HAPE.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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