Publications by authors named "Pawel Sztromwasser"

Article Synopsis
  • Population genetic screening for cancer has sparked debates over costs and ethical concerns, with varying standards across countries focusing primarily on those with a personal or family cancer history.
  • In a study involving 1076 Polish individuals, a broad analysis of genetic variants uncovered 19,551 rare variants in genes linked to cancer, with a notably low frequency of pathogenic variants like those in BRCA1/BRCA2.
  • The study highlights challenges in accurately assessing the pathogenicity of rare variants and suggests the need for further research to improve understanding of variant frequency and implications for population-based whole genome screening.
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Undoubtedly, genetic factors play an important role in susceptibility and resistance to COVID-19. In this study, we conducted the GWAS analysis. Out of 15,489,173 SNPs, we identified 18,191 significant SNPs for severe and 11,799 SNPs for resistant phenotype, showing that a great number of loci were significant in different COVID-19 representations.

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Spinal muscular atrophy is a severe neuromuscular disorder with an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern. The disease-causing gene is SMN1, and its paralogue, SMN2, is a disease course modifier. Both genes SMN1 and SMN2 show over 99.

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Cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome (CFCS) belongs to the group of RASopathies, clinical disorders defined by disruptions in the RAS/MAPK signaling pathway. It is caused by heterozygous gain-of-function germline mutations in genes encoding protein kinases: , (), (), and in the GTPase-encoding gene . CFCS is characterized by craniofacial dysmorphic features, congenital heart defects, severe malnutrition, proportionate short stature, anomalies within the structure of skin and hair, and psychomotor disability.

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Motivation: Whole-genome sequencing has revolutionized biosciences by providing tools for constructing complete DNA sequences of individuals. With entire genomes at hand, scientists can pinpoint DNA fragments responsible for oncogenesis and predict patient responses to cancer treatments. Machine learning plays a paramount role in this process.

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COVID-19 infections pose a serious global health concern so it is crucial to identify the biomarkers for the susceptibility to and resistance against this disease that could help in a rapid risk assessment and reliable decisions being made on patients' treatment and their potential hospitalisation. Several studies investigated the factors associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes that can be either environmental, population based, or genetic. It was demonstrated that the genetics of the host plays an important role in the various immune responses and, therefore, there are different clinical presentations of COVID-19 infection.

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Although Slavic populations account for over 4.5% of world inhabitants, no centralised, open-source reference database of genetic variation of any Slavic population exists to date. Such data are crucial for clinical genetics, biomedical research, as well as archeological and historical studies.

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Background And Objective: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein overexpression is one of the most significant biomarkers for breast cancer diagnostics, treatment prediction, and prognostics. The high accessibility of HER2 inhibitors in routine clinical practice directly translates into the diagnostic need for precise and robust marker identification. Even though multigene next-generation sequencing methodologies have slowly taken over the field of single-biomarker molecular tests, the copy number alterations such as amplification of the HER2-coding ERBB2 gene are hard to validate on next-generation sequencing platforms as they are characterized by chromosomal structural heterogeneity, polysomy, and genomic context of ploidy.

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Vaccination is an effective method for the prevention of influenza virus infection. Many manufacturers use embryonated chicken eggs (ECE) for the propagation of vaccine strains. However, the adaptation of viral strains during subsequent passages can lead to additional virus evolution and lower effectiveness of the resulting vaccines.

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Background: Analysis of variants in distant regulatory elements could improve the current 25-50% yield of genetic testing for monogenic diseases. However, the vast size of the regulome, great number of variants, and the difficulty in predicting their phenotypic impact make searching for pathogenic variants in the regulatory genome challenging. New tools for the identification of regulatory variants based on their relevance to the phenotype are needed.

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Background: Pyle disease is a rare autosomal recessive bone dysplasia characterized by the broadening of metaphyses with generalized cortical thinning. Homozygous truncating mutations in secreted frizzled-related protein 4 () were, to date, the only known variants causative for this type of skeletal disorder. SFRP4 controls cortical and trabecular bone remodeling by differential regulation of the canonical and non-canonical WNT signaling in both bone compartments.

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Parkinson disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. While genome wide association studies have identified several susceptibility loci, many causal variants and genes underlying these associations remain undetermined. Identifying these is essential in order to gain mechanistic insight and identify biological pathways that may be targeted therapeutically.

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Purpose: Thyroid hemiagenesis (THA) is an inborn absence of one thyroid lobe of largely unknown etiopathogenesis, affecting 0.05-0.5% population.

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Pasteurization of donated human milk preserves it for storage and makes it safe for feeding, but at the expense of its composition, nutritional values and functions. Here, we aimed to investigate the impact of Holder Pasteurization (HoP) and High Pressure Processing (HPP) methods on miRNA in human milk and to evaluate impact of these changes on miRNA functions. Milk samples obtained from women in 50th day of lactation (n = 3) were subjected either to HoP, HPP or remained unpasteurized as a control.

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Article Synopsis
  • EAV is maintained in horse populations through persistently infected stallions, with a study focusing on Polish Hucul horses to monitor the spread and analyze genome variability.
  • Serum samples from 62 horses revealed a significant increase in seropositive mares (from 7% to 92%), while stallion seropositivity remained stable (64-71%).
  • Genetic analysis showed high similarity (94.7% to 99.6%) among EAV genomes, and specific alleles (EqCXCL16S) were linked to long-term carrier status in some stallions, with none of the identified EqCXCL16R stallions being persistent shedders.
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Background/objectives: Patients referred for HNF1B testing present very heterogeneous phenotypes. Despite suggestive characteristics, many do not harbor mutations in HNF1B. Our objective was to evaluate the clinical characteristics of probands referred for HNF1B genetic testing through a nationwide monogenic diabetes screening program.

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The emergence of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance ( genes) threatens the effectiveness of polymyxins, which are last-resort drugs to treat infections by multidrug- and carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Based on the occurrence of colistin resistance the aims of the study were to determine possible resistance mechanisms and then characterize the -positive . The research used material from the Polish national and EU harmonized antimicrobial resistance (AMR) monitoring programs.

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Background: Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a key role in PD, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unresolved. We hypothesized that the disruption of mitochondrial function in PD is primed by rare, protein-altering variation in nuclear genes controlling mitochondrial structure and function.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess whether genetic variation in genes associated with mitochondrial function influences the risk of idiopathic PD.

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Aims/hypothesis: MODY can be wrongly diagnosed as type 1 diabetes in children. We aimed to find the prevalence of MODY in a nationwide population-based registry of childhood diabetes.

Methods: Using next-generation sequencing, we screened the HNF1A, HNF4A, HNF1B, GCK and INS genes in all 469 children (12.

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Motivation: The search for causative genetic variants in rare diseases of presumed monogenic inheritance has been boosted by the implementation of whole exome (WES) and whole genome (WGS) sequencing. In many cases, WGS seems to be superior to WES, but the analysis and visualization of the vast amounts of data is demanding.

Results: To aid this challenge, we have developed a new tool-RareVariantVis-for analysis of genome sequence data (including non-coding regions) for both germ line and somatic variants.

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We identified PNKP mutations in a Norwegian woman with AOA. This patient had the typical findings with cognitive dysfunction, peripheral neuropathy, cerebellar dysarthria, horizontal nystagmus, oculomotor apraxia, and severe truncal and appendicular ataxia. In addition, she had hypoalbuminemia and massive lower limb edema which showed some improvement with treatment.

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Background: Biotin-thiamine responsive basal ganglia disease is a severe, but potentially treatable disorder caused by mutations in the SLC19A3 gene. Although the disease is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, patients with typical phenotypes carrying single heterozygous mutations have been reported. This makes the diagnosis uncertain and may delay treatment.

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