👤 Maruša Debeljak

In contrast to extensively studied hypercholesterolemia, knowledge of hypocholesterolemia is limited. This study aims to assess the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and genetics of children and adolescents with hypocholesterolemia. This national prospective cross-sectional cohort study was part of Slovenia's universal opt-out cholesterol screening program. The first part assessed hypocholesterolemia prevalence among 3538 children aged 5 years, randomly selected at the mandatory check-up. The second part included analysis of demographic and clinical data and genetic testing of 71 individuals with suspected hypocholesterolemia (total cholesterol [TC] < 3.0 mmol/L [116.0 mg/dL]) referred to the Lipid Clinic of University Children's Hospital Ljubljana. The prevalence of hypocholesterolemia among 3538 children was 2.66 % (95 % CI: 2.13-3.19 %). Among the 71 genetically tested individuals with suspected hypocholesterolemia, those with pathogenic variants had lower TC (2.58 ± 0.44 mmol/L vs. 2.85 ± 0.42 mmol/L [99.77 ± 17.02 mg/dL vs. 110.20 ± 16.24 mg/dL]; p = 0.037) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (1.00 ± 0.40 mmol/L vs. 1.33 ± 0.40 mmol/L [38.67 ± 15.47 mg/dL vs. 51.43 ± 15.47 mg/dL]; p = 0.014) compared to those without such variants. Genetic testing identified pathogenic alterations in 15 subjects, including 4 novel loss-of-function variants in the APOB gene. All but one subject were asymptomatic. This study provides new clinical and genetic insights into hypocholesterolemia. Asymptomatic patients with hypocholesterolemia may not require further evaluation, but additional research is needed to understand hypocholesterolemia better. Show less

Monogenic obesity is a severe, genetically determined disorder that affects up to 1/1000 newborns. Recent reports on potential new therapeutics and innovative clinical approaches have highlighted the need for early identification of individuals with rare genetic variants that can alter the functioning of the leptin-melanocortin signalling pathway, in order to speed up clinical intervention and reduce the risk of chronic complications. Therefore, next-generation DNA sequencing of central genes in the leptin-melanocortin pathway was performed in 1508 children and adolescents with and without obesity, aged 2-19 years. The recruited cohort comprised approximately 5% of the national paediatric population with obesity. The model-estimated effect size of rare variants in the leptin-melanocortin signalling pathway on longitudinal weight gain between carriers and non-carriers was derived. In total, 21 (1.4%) participants had known disease-causing heterozygous variants (DCVs) in the genes under investigation, and 62 (4.1%) participants were carriers of rare variants of unknown clinical significance (VUS). The estimated frequency of potential genetic variants associated with obesity (including rare VUS) ranged between 1/150 (VUS and DCV) and 1/850 (DCV) and differed significantly between participants with and without obesity. On average, the variants identified would result in approximately 7.6 kg (7.0-12.9 kg at the 95th percentile of body weight) (girls) and 8.4 kg (8.2-14.4 kg) (boys) of additional weight gain in carriers at age 18 years compared with subjects without obesity. In conclusion, children with a genetic predisposition to obesity can be promptly identified and may account for more than 6% of obesity cases. Early identification of genetic variants in the Show less

Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) deficiency is an extremely rare inherited autosomal recessive disorder characterized by severe obesity, adrenal insufficiency, skin hypopigmentation, and red hair. It is caused by pathogenic variants in the Show less