Hearing loss is the most common sensory defect, affecting more than 500 million people worldwide. Genetically it is very heterogenous disease with more than 6000 variants in more than 110 genes. It is most often classified based on ear anatomy, where ear is divided into the outer and middle ear (conductive hearing loss) and into inner ear (sensorineural hearing loss). Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common type of hearing loss, accounting for more than 90 % of all hearing loss cases and is caused by damaged hair or nerve cells in the cochlea. It can be further divided into 4 types based on the inheritance mode: autosomal recessive, autosomal dominant, X-linked and mitochondrial. Autosomal recessive sensorineural hearing loss is mostly the consequence of mutations in genes SLC26A4, OTOF, CDH23, TMC, GJB6 or GJB2, the latter being the main cause of hearing loss in European and Slovenian population.
The aim of this study was to find and evaluate causal genetic variants in people with hearing loss using Sanger sequencing and next generation sequencing. Furthermore, with the hearing loss variome analysis we wanted to identify novel disease causing variants or genes that are potentially involved in development of hearing loss.
We enrolled 103 people with hearing loss and 167 individuals without hearing loss, representing our control group. Disease causing variants in GJB2 were the cause of hearing loss in 23 patients and the most common variant was NM_004004.6:c.35delG (NP_003995.2:p.Gly12Valfs) present in 64 % of all GJB2 mutated alleles. With the next generation sequencing hearing loss was genetically resolved in additional 5 % of the individuals. We identified a very small number of disease causing variants in TMPRSS3 gene, although it was previously reported that variants in this gene are the second most common cause of hearing loss in Slovenian population. With the hearing loss variome analysis we recognized few new candidate genes that could be related to the etiology of hearing loss, namely MIAT, GSTT1, TBL1Y, ACSL4, ACVR2B, ZMYND11 and NEUROD1. In addition, in one subject we identified a ACSL4 gene variant which could potentially be the cause of hearing loss.
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