Nephronophthisis

Renal ciliopathies are a group of disorders characterised by nephronophthisis, cystic kidneys or renal cystic dysplasia whose underlying disease pathogenesis is related to abnormal structure or function of the primary cilia complex. The number of renal ciliopathies continues to expand as genomic and genetic approaches identify novel causes. This in turn provides new opportunities to explore disease mechanisms and therapeutic approaches to target cystic kidney disease and other associated phenotypes. Here we review recent advances in the field of renal ciliopathies and how these allow new insights into this fascinating spectrum of diseases...

Nephronophthisis-related ciliopathy (NPHP-RC) is a common genetic cause of end-stage renal failure during childhood and adolescence and exhibits an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance. Genetic diagnosis is quite limited owing to genetic heterogeneity in NPHP-RC. We designed a novel approach involving the step-wise screening of Sanger sequencing and targeted exome sequencing for the genetic diagnosis of 55 patients with NPHP-RC. First, five NPHP-RC genes were analyzed by Sanger sequencing in phenotypically classified patients...

Senior-Loken syndrome refers to a disorder in which there is a combination of nephronophthisis and retinal dystrophy. The earliest presenting signs of the renal component are polyuria and polydipsia secondary to defective urinary concentrating ability. Nephronophthisis progresses to end-stage renal disease during the second decade. The retinal lesions are variable, ranging from severe infantile onset retinal dystrophy to more typical retinitis pigmentosa. There is a spectrum of other associated features, including skeletal, dermatological and cerebellar anomalies, observed in this entity...

Nephronophthisis (NPH) is a rare autosomal ciliopathy, but the leading cause for hereditary end-stage renal disease in children. Most NPH family members form large protein networks, which appear to participate in structural elements of the cilium and/or function to restrict access of molecules to the ciliary compartment. The zinc-finger protein GLIS2/NPHP7 represents an exception as it has been implicated in transcriptional regulation; only two families with GLIS2/NPHP7 mutations and typical NPH manifestations have been identified so far...

Many loci in the human genome harbor complex genomic structures that can result in susceptibility to genomic rearrangements leading to various genomic disorders. Nephronophthisis 1 (NPHP1, MIM# 256100) is an autosomal recessive disorder that can be caused by defects of NPHP1; the gene maps within the human 2q13 region where low copy repeats (LCRs) are abundant. Loss of function of NPHP1 is responsible for approximately 85% of the NPHP1 cases-about 80% of such individuals carry a large recurrent homozygous NPHP1 deletion that occurs via nonallelic homologous recombination (NAHR) between two flanking directly oriented ~45 kb LCRs...