The condition of critically ill patients changes rapidly, involving pathological changes in multiple systems and organs throughout the body. Exploring the causal relationship of mechanisms can further reveal etiology, treatment, and prognosis of diseases. However, traditional prospective studies in the field of critical care are still subject to numerous limitations. As an emerging research method, Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis uses genetic variation to provide causal evidence for instrumental variables, which is expected to provide clues in critical diseases. This article systematically describes the research progresson the application of MR analysis in critical care medicine from four aspects: the principle of MR analysis, the difference between MR analysis and randomized controlled trial (RCT), the use of MR analysis in the field of critical illness, and the possible methods of application, aiming to provide possible directions for the research in this field.
Humans ; Mendelian Randomization Analysis/methods* ; Genetic Variation ; Causality ; Research Design

Mendelian randomization is a causal inference method using genetic variations as instrumental variables, which skillfully takes advantages of the distributive randomness and timing priority of genetic variation, effectively avoiding confounding biases and reverse causalities in traditional observational researches. It has become a research hotspot in recent years. As a complex inflammatory disease, periodontitis is associated with many factors, but the cognitions about these associations are mostly based on traditional observational studies, lacking strong evidences to infer the causality. In order to bring up new research ideas in the periodontal field, this article mainly reviewed Mendelian randomization and its research progress in periodontitis.
Humans ; Mendelian Randomization Analysis ; Causality ; Periodontitis ; Research Design ; Genetic Variation

Pharmacogenetic studies are designed to investigate the associations between genetic variation and treatment response for a particular drug in terms of both efficacy and adverse events and have high sample size requirements. To improve the quality of pharmacogenetic studies and facilitate the Meta-analyses to investigate statistically significant associations, Strengthening the Reporting of Pharmacogenetic Studies (STROPS) guideline was developed in 2020 based on the Strengthening the Reporting of Genetic Association Studies (STREGA) statement. The objective of this article is to present a brief introduction to the STROPS guideline and an interpretation of the key points in some items with examples for the better understanding and application.
Genetic Association Studies ; Humans ; Pharmacogenomic Testing ; Research Report

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a set of neurodevelopmental disorders. Patients usually exhibit certain degree of social interaction impairment in accompany with impairment in language development as well as repetitive behaviors or interests. In recent years, ASD-related variants, genes, functional pathways, and expression patterns in the brain have been discovered, along with advance in sequencing techniques. This article reviews various aspects of genetic research in association with ASD.
Autism Spectrum Disorder/genetics* ; Cognition ; Genetic Research ; Humans ; Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Branchio-oto syndrome (BOS)/branchio-oto-renal syndrome (BORS) is a kind of autosomal dominant heterogeneous disorder. These diseases are mainly characterized by hearing impairment and abnormal phenotype of ears, accompanied by renal malformation and branchial cleft anomalies including cyst or fistula, with an incidence of 1/40 000 in human population. Otic anormalies are one of the most obvious clinical manifestations of BOS/BORS, including deformities of external, middle, inner ears and hearing loss with conductive, sensorineural or mix, ranging from mild to profound loss. Temporal bone imaging could assist in the diagnosis of middle ear and inner ear malformations for clinicians. Multiple methods including direct sequencing combined with next generation sequencing (NGS), multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), or array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) can effectively screen and identify pathogenic genes and/or variation types of BOS/BORS. About 40% of patients with BOS/BORS carry aberrations of EYA1 gene which is the most important cause of BOS/BORS. A total of 240 kinds of pathogenic variations of EYA1 have been reported in different populations so far, including frameshift, nonsense, missense, aberrant splicing, deletion and complex rearrangements. Human Endogenous Retroviral sequences (HERVs) may play an important role in mediating EYA1 chromosomal fragment deletion mutations caused by non-allelic homologous recombination. EYA1 encodes a phosphatase-transactivator cooperated with transcription factors of SIX1, participates in cranial sensory neurogenesis and development of branchial arch-derived organs, then regulates the morphological and functional differentiation of the outer ear, middle ear and inner ear toward normal tissues. In addition, pathogenic mutations of SIX1 and SIX5 genes can also cause BOS/BORS. Variations of these genes mentioned above may cause disease by destroying the bindings between SIX1-EYA1, SIX5-EYA1 or SIX1-DNA. However, the role of SIX5 gene in the pathogenesis of BORS needs further verification.
Branchio-Oto-Renal Syndrome/pathology* ; Chromosome Deletion ; Comparative Genomic Hybridization ; Genetic Research ; Homeodomain Proteins/genetics* ; Humans ; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Nuclear Proteins/metabolism* ; Pedigree ; Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases/metabolism*

Tooth agenesis is the most common form of congenital craniofacial dysplasia seen in stomatology clinics, which may be caused by genetic and/or environmental factors. Tooth development is regulated by a series of signaling pathways, and variants in any of these strictly balanced signaling cascades can result in tooth agenesis and/or other oral defects. Notably, variants of genes of the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway are important cause for both non-syndromic and syndromic tooth agenesis. This article has provided a review for the molecular genetics of tooth agenesis associated with Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway, which may shed lights on the etiology and molecular mechanism of this disease.
Anodontia/genetics* ; Genetic Research ; Humans ; Tooth ; Wnt Proteins/genetics* ; Wnt Signaling Pathway/genetics*

Complex kinship analysis refers to a kind of special kinship analysis taken for the purpose of personal identification or other issues in civil or criminal cases because the father or （and） mother is dead, or cannot participate in the analysis for other reasons. Due to the absence of significant appraised persons in this kind of kinship analysis, grandparents, siblings or collateral relatives are required to participate in the analysis. Complex kinship analysis is widely used and the demand is increasing year by year. This paper analyzes the main types of complex kinships, the genetic markers of complex kinship analysis and their advantages and disadvantages and the calculation methods for complex kinship analysis by referring to the relevant literatures at home and abroad in recent years. At the same time, the shortcomings of the present research on complex kinship and its future development are prospected.
Genetic Markers ; Humans ; Pedigree ; Research ; Siblings

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has occurred in China and around the world. SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with severe pneumonia rapidly develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and die of multiple organ failure. Despite advances in supportive care approaches, ARDS is still associated with high mortality and morbidity. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy may be an potential alternative strategy for treating ARDS by targeting the various pathophysiological events of ARDS. By releasing a variety of paracrine factors and extracellular vesicles, MSC can exert anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, anti-microbial, and pro-angiogenic effects, promote bacterial and alveolar fluid clearance, disrupt the pulmonary endothelial and epithelial cell damage, eventually avoiding the lung and distal organ injuries to rescue patients with ARDS. An increasing number of experimental animal studies and early clinical studies verify the safety and efficacy of MSC therapy in ARDS. Since low cell engraftment and survival in lung limit MSC therapeutic potentials, several strategies have been developed to enhance their engraftment in the lung and their intrinsic, therapeutic properties. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the mechanisms and optimization of MSC therapy in ARDS and highlighted the potentials and possible barriers of MSC therapy for COVID-19 patients with ARDS.
Adoptive Transfer ; Alveolar Epithelial Cells ; pathology ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; Betacoronavirus ; Body Fluids ; metabolism ; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes ; immunology ; Clinical Trials as Topic ; Coinfection ; prevention & control ; therapy ; Coronavirus Infections ; complications ; immunology ; Disease Models, Animal ; Endothelial Cells ; pathology ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ; Genetic Therapy ; methods ; Genetic Vectors ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Immunity, Innate ; Inflammation Mediators ; metabolism ; Lung ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation ; methods ; Mesenchymal Stem Cells ; physiology ; Multiple Organ Failure ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; complications ; immunology ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult ; immunology ; pathology ; therapy ; Translational Medical Research

With the application of BACs-on-Beads (BoBs) and array-comparative genome hybridization (aCGH) technologies in prenatal diagnosis, microdeletion/microduplications at Xp22.3 have been frequently detected. However, the relatively high prevalence and lack of knowledge of such disorders have brought difficulties for clinical genetic counseling. Here, recent progress of research on microdeletion/microduplications at Xp22.3, including epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestation, and prenatal diagnosis, is reviewed.
Chromosomes, Human, X ; genetics ; Comparative Genomic Hybridization ; Female ; Genetic Counseling ; Humans ; Karyotyping ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Diagnosis ; Research ; trends

Bartter syndrome is an inherited metabolic disorder characterized by hypokalemic alkalosis and high rennin-angiotensin-aldosteronism which can occur at all ages but mainly in childhood. Classical Bartter syndrome is caused by loss-of-function variants in the gene encoding basolateral chloride channel ClC-Kb (CLCNKB), which is a common type of Bartter syndrome characterized with diverse clinical manifestations ranging from severe to very mild. This article reviews the function and mechanism of CLCNKB variants in Chinese population and the genotype-phenotype correlation of CLCNKB variants in classical Bartter syndrome.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Bartter Syndrome ; genetics ; pathology ; Chloride Channels ; genetics ; Genetic Association Studies ; Humans ; Research ; trends