Genotype-phenotype Characterization Study on Genetic Diseases With Immune and Neurological Dysfunctions

Autoimmune Diseases, Genetic Diseases, Immune Dysfunction, Neurological Disease

Over the past twenty years, Prof. Yanick Crow and his team have developed internationally recognized expertise in genetic pathologies affecting the immune and neurological systems. The pathologies studied have a particularly severe impact on patients' quality of life, with a high mortality rate and a significant risk of occurrence in affected families. These pathologies are rare, and very often under-diagnosed. To date, there is virtually no effective curative treatment. Prof. Crow's team operates at the frontier between clinical and research work, and from experience, the team knows that patients and families affected by these serious pathologies are often highly motivated to help research into the pathology that affects them. Initially, Prof. Crow's research focused primarily on the study of the genetic disease Aicardi-Goutières Syndrome (AGS). However, there is an undeniable clinical and pathological overlap between AGS and other forms of disease such as autoimmune systemic lupus erythematosus and many other genetic pathologies - e.g. familial lupus engelure, spondyloenchondromatosis and COPA syndrome. This is why research is being extended to all genetic diseases with immune and neurological dysfunctions.

The research methodology is classic with regard to many genetic clinical studies, and aims to: * clinically define the phenotypes of these diseases (in this case, genetic diseases with immune and neurological dysfunctions) * identify the gene(s) responsible for each disease * Understand how changes in these genes and protein functions cause these diseases. It is possible that this research will ultimately lead to the creation of diagnostic tests (e.g. molecular diagnostic screening tests) and treatments that would be clinically very useful for the patients participating in the project. These discoveries could also improve our knowledge of other more common pathologies, particularly those associated with autoimmunity (e.g. when the body increases an immune response against its own tissues). As a complement to this global research project, Prof. Crow's team intends to study cell populations from patients with no inflammatory pathology, in order to analyze their basal levels of immune and inflammatory mediator production, as well as to assess their capacity (kinetics and amplitude) to respond to stimuli.

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