👤 Kirsi Penttinen

Modeling human cardiac diseases with induced pluripotent stem cells not only enables to study disease pathophysiology and develop therapies but also, as we have previously showed, it can offer a tool for disease diagnostics. We previously observed that a few genetic cardiac diseases can be separated from each other and healthy controls by applying machine learning to Ca For the current research, 419 hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) transient signals and 228 long QT syndrome (LQTS) transient signals were measured. HCM signals included data recorded from iPSC-CMs carrying either α-tropomyosin, i.e., TPM1 (HCMT) or MYBPC3 or myosin-binding protein C (HCMM) mutation and LQTS signals included data recorded from iPSC-CMs carrying potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily Q member 1 (KCNQ1) mutation (long QT syndrome 1 [LQT1]) or KCNH2 mutation (long QT syndrome 2 [LQT2]). The main objective was to study whether and how effectively HCMM and HCMT can be separated from each other as well as LQT1 from LQT2. After preprocessing those Ca We obtained excellent classification accuracies of 89% for HCM and even 100% for LQT at their best. The results indicate that the methods applied would be efficient for the identification of these genetic cardiac diseases. Show less

The first prenatal diagnosis of variant late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (vLINCL[Finnish]; CLN5) is reported. The disease belongs to the group of progressive encephalopathies in children with psycho-motor deterioration, visual failure and premature death. Neurons and several extraneural cells harbour lysosomal inclusions showing accumulation of material with histochemical characteristics of ceroid and lipofuscin. A Finnish woman with a daughter with vLINCL came for genetic counselling for her current pregnancy. Electron microscopy of a chorionic villus sample (CVS) at the 11th week of gestation did not reveal inclusions characteristic for NCL. DNA analysis showed that the fetus had inherited the major mutation, a 2 bp deletion of the CLN5 gene from the mother, and the same paternal (and maternal) haplotypes for COLAC1 and AC224 as the affected daughter. The pregnancy was terminated. Electron microscopy of the CVS of the aborted fetus at the 14th week of pregnancy showed lysosomal electron dense inclusions with straight and curved lamellar profiles consistent with vLINCL. Prenatal diagnosis of NCL-disorders (CLN1, CLN2, CLN3) can be made from CVS by demonstrating the mutations of the affected genes or by haplotype analysis using the closely linked markers in most cases. In various clinical settings the DNA diagnostics may not be possible. Demonstration of the characteristic inclusions of the placenta and fetal tissues remains a helpful adjunct in such cases. Show less