Objective To report the performance of massively parallel sequencing (MPS) based prenatal noninvasive fetal trisomy test based on cell-free DNA sequencing from maternal plasma in a routine clinical setting in China. MethodThe MPS-based test was offered as a prenatal screening test for trisomies 21 and 18 to pregnant women in 49 medical centers over 2 years. A total of 11 263 participants were recruited and the MPS-based test was performed in 11 105 pregnancies. Fetal outcome data were obtained after the expected date of confinement.Results One hundred ninety cases were classified as positive, including 143 cases of trisomy 21 and 47 cases of trisomy 18.With the karyotyping results and the feedback of fetal outcome data, we observed one false positive case of trisomy 21, one false positive case of trisomy 18 and no false negative cases, indicating 100% sensitivity and 99.96% specificity for the detection of trisomies 21 and 18.Conclusion Our large-scale multicenter study proved that the MPS-based test is of high sensitivity and specificity in

BackgroundConventional prenatal screening tests, such as maternal serum tests and ultrasound scan, have limited resolution and accuracy.MethodsWe developed an advanced noninvasive prenatal diagnosis method based on massively parallel sequencing. The Noninvasive Fetal Trisomy (NIFTY) test, combines an optimized Student’s t-test with a locally weighted polynomial regression and binary hypotheses. We applied the NIFTY test to 903 pregnancies and compared the diagnostic results with those of full karyotyping.Results16 of 16 trisomy 21, 12 of 12 trisomy 18, two of two trisomy 13, three of four 45, X, one of one XYY and two of two XXY abnormalities were correctly identified. But one false positive case of trisomy 18 and one false negative case of 45, X were observed. The test performed with 100% sensitivity and 99.9% specificity for autosomal aneuploidies and 85.7% sensitivity and 99.9% specificity for sex chromosomal aneuploidies. Compared with three previously reported z-score approaches with/without GC-bias removal and with internal control, the NIFTY test was more accurate and robust for the detection of both autosomal and sex chromosomal aneuploidies in fetuses.ConclusionOur study demonstrates a powerful and reliable methodology for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis.

Background & Aims Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified 140 Crohn’s disease (CD) susceptibility loci. For most loci, the variants that cause disease are not known and the genes affected by these variants have not been identified. We aimed to identify variants that cause CD through detailed sequencing, genetic association, expression, and functional studies. Methods We sequenced whole exomes of 42 unrelated subjects with Crohn’s disease (CD) and 5 healthy individuals (controls), and then filtered single-nucleotide variants by incorporating association results from meta-analyses of CD GWASs and in silico mutation effect prediction algorithms. We then genotyped 9348 patients with CD, 2868 with ulcerative colitis, and 14,567 controls, and associated variants analyzed in functional studies using materials from patients and controls and in vitro model systems. Results We identified rare missense mutations in PR domain-containing1 (PRDM1) and associated these with CD. These increased proliferation of T cells and secretion of cytokines upon activation, and increased expression of the adhesion molecule L-selectin. A common CD risk allele, identified in GWASs, correlated with reduced expression of PRDM1 in ileal biopsies and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (combined P=1.6×0−8). We identified an association between CD and a common missense variant, Val248Ala, in nuclear domain 10 protein 52 (NDP52) (P=4.83×10−9). We found that this variant impairs the regulatory functions of NDP52 to inhibit NFκB activation of genes that regulate inflammation and affect stability of proteins in toll-like receptor pathways. Conclusions We have extended GWAS results and provide evidence that variants in PRDM1 and NDP52 determine susceptibility to CD. PRDM1 maps adjacent to a CD interval identified in GWASs and encodes a transcription factor expressed by T and B cells. NDP52 is an adaptor protein that functions in selective autophagy of intracellular bacteria and signaling molecules, supporting the role for autophagy in pathogenesis of CD.

Objective To report the feasibility of fetal chromosomal deletion/duplication detection using a novel bioinformatic method of low coverage whole genome sequencing of maternal plasma.Method A practical method Fetal Copy-number Analysis through Maternal Plasma Sequencing (FCAPS), integrated with GC-bias correction, binary segmentation algorithm and dynamic threshold strategy, was developed to detect fetal chromosomal deletions/duplications of >10 Mb by low coverage whole genome sequencing (about 0.08-fold). The sensitivity/specificity of the resultant FCAPS algorithm in detecting deletions/duplications was firstly assessed in silico and then tested in 1311 maternal plasma samples from those with known G-banding karyotyping results of the fetus.Results Deletions/duplications, ranged from 9.01 to 28.46 Mb, were suspected in four of the 1311 samples, of which three were consistent with the results of fetal karyotyping. In one case, the suspected abnormality was not confirmed by karyotyping, representing a false positive case. No false negative case was observed in the remaining 1307 low-risk samples. The sensitivity and specificity for detection of >10-Mb chromosomal deletions/duplications were100% and 99.92%, respectively.Conclusion Our study demonstrated FCAPS has the potential to detect fetal large deletions/duplications (>10 Mb) with low coverage maternal plasma DNA sequencing currently used for fetal aneuploidy detection.

This massively parallel sequencing-based approach, combined with the improved z-score test methodology, enables the prenatal diagnosis of most common aneuploidies with a high degree of accuracy, even in the first trimester of pregnancy.