Mariarosa Maiorana

BACKGROUND: The DiGeorge syndrome, the most common of the microdeletion syndromes, affects multiple organs, including the heart, the nervous system, and the kidney. It is caused by deletions on chromosome 22q11.2; the genetic driver of the kidney defects is unknown. METHODS: We conducted a genomewide search for structural variants in two cohorts: 2080 patients with congenital kidney and urinary tract anomalies and 22,094 controls. We performed exome and targeted resequencing in samples obtained from 586 additional patients with congenital kidney anomalies. We also carried out functional studies using zebrafish and mice. RESULTS: ). We localized the main drivers of renal disease in the DiGeorge syndrome to a 370-kb region containing nine genes. In zebrafish embryos, an induced loss of function in snap29, aifm3, and crkl resulted in renal defects; the loss of crkl alone was sufficient to induce defects. Five of 586 patients with congenital urinary anomalies had newly identified, heterozygous protein-altering variants, including a premature termination codon, in CRKL. The inactivation of Crkl in the mouse model induced developmental defects similar to those observed in patients with congenital urinary anomalies. CONCLUSIONS: We identified a recurrent 370-kb deletion at the 22q11.2 locus as a driver of kidney defects in the DiGeorge syndrome and in sporadic congenital kidney and urinary tract anomalies. Of the nine genes at this locus, SNAP29, AIFM3, and CRKL appear to be critical to the phenotype, with haploinsufficiency of CRKL emerging as the main genetic driver. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and others.).

A high incidence of thrombotic events has been reported in patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. We report 3 clinical cases of patients in Italy with COVID-19 who developed abdominal viscera infarction, demonstrated by computed tomography.

BACKGROUND: Sporadic data are available about pazopanib use in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) undergoing dialysis and no systematic review has been previously performed about this issue. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present mini-review is to provide an overview of clinical outcomes of pazopanib in this population, in order to support the clinical oncologist for the treatment choice and management. RESULTS: All the literature ever published about mRCC dialysis patients receiving pazopanib, until August 2015, was evaluated: only two case series emerged from our search and one more patient from our department was also included, with a total of 11 mRCC dialysis patients overall. Moreover, we described our case of intrapatient dose titration of pazopanib during dialysis. CONCLUSION: The continued treatment schedule, the short half-life, the predominantly hepatic metabolism, the wide possibility of dose modulation, the favorable tolerability profile and the similar efficacy respect to sunitinib represent factors in favor of pazopanib as first line mRCC treatment in dialysis patients. The knowledge and the good management of toxicity during pazopanib treatment can lead, also in dialysis patients, to the best and longest application of the drug, taking into account the concept of a dose escalation guided by toxicity as a marker of efficacy. The review, together with our single case report, confirmed the efficacy, the good tolerability and the maneuverability of pazopanib treatment in mRCC patients undergoing dialysis.