Chamseddine Kifagi

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at Technical University of Denmark

Genotoxicants have been used for decades as front-line therapies against cancer on the basis of their DNA-damaging actions. However, some of their non-DNA-damaging effects are also instrumental for killing dividing cells. We report here that the anthracycline Daunorubicin (DNR), one of the main drugs used to treat Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), indu...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), commonly diagnosed at an advanced stage, is the most common primary liver cancer. Owing to a lack of effective HCC treatments and the commonly acquired chemoresistance, novel therapies need to be investigated. Cyclophilins—intracellular proteins with peptidyl-prolyl isomerase activity—have been shown to play a key ro...

(1) Background: Germline variants in BRCA1/BRCA2 genes explain about 20% of hereditary breast/ovarian cancer (HBOC) cases. In the present paper, we aim to identify genetic determinants in BRCA-negative families from the South of Tunisia. (2) Methods: Exome Sequencing (ES) was performed on the lymphocyte DNA of patients negative for BRCA mutations f...

Genotoxicants have been used for decades as front-line therapies against cancer on the basis of their DNA-damaging actions. However, some of their non-DNA-damaging effects are also instrumental for killing dividing cells. We report here that the anthracycline Daunorubicin (DNR), one of the main drugs used to treat Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), indu...

Male Breast Cancer (MBC) is a rare and aggressive disease that is associated with genetic factors. Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 account for 10% of all MBC cases suggesting that other genetic factors are involved. The aim of the present study is to screen whole BRCA1 and BRCA2 exons using the Ampliseq BRCA panel in Tunisian MBC patients with family...

Background/aims: Chromosomal instability is a well-known factor in the progression of different types of cancer, including colorectal cancer. Chromosomal instability results in severely rearranged karyotypes and aneuploidy. Tetraploidy constitutes an intermediate phase during the polyploidy/aneuploidy cascade in oncogenesis, and tetraploid cells a...

Colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers and the third most common cause of cancer-related death. Metastasis is the leading reason for the resultant mortality of these patients. Accordingly, development and characterization of novel anti-cancer drugs limiting colorectal tumor cell dissemination and metastasis are needed. In t...

Chemotherapeutic drugs used in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemias (AMLs) are thought to induce cancer cell death through the generation of DNA double-strand breaks. Here, we report that one of their early effects is the loss of conjugation of the ubiquitin-like protein SUMO from its targets via reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent inhibiti...

Pompe disease is a progressive metabolic myopathy caused by deficiency in lysosomal acid α-glucosidase and results in cellular lysosomal and cytoplasmic glycogen accumulation. A wide spectrum of clinical phenotypes exists from hypotonia and severe cardiac hypertrophy in the first few months of life to a milder form with the onset of symptoms in adu...

Autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL) is a genetically heterogenous disorder with 41 genes so far identified. Among these genes, ESRRB whose mutations are responsible for DFNB35 hearing loss in Pakistani and Turkish families. This gene encodes the estrogen-related receptor beta. In this study, we report a novel mutation (p.Y305H)...

Rett syndrome is an X-linked dominant disorder caused frequently by mutations in the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 gene (MECP2). Rett patients present an apparently normal psychomotor development during the first 6-18 months of life. Thereafter, they show a short period of developmental stagnation followed by a rapid regression in language and motor...

In recent genome-wide association studies, genetic variants in TCF7L2, SLC30A8, HHEX, LOC387761, and EXT2 were associated with risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We aimed at investigating the association of these single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with T2DM and defining their corresponding allelic and genotypic combinations in the Tunisi...

Mitochondria are essential for early cardiac development and impaired regulation of mitochondrial function was implicated in congenital heart diseases. We described a newborn girl with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and profound hearing loss. The mtDNA mutational analysis revealed the presence of known polymorphisms associated to cardiomyopathy and/or...

Febrile seizures (FSs) relatively represent the most common form of childhood seizures. FSs are not thought of as a true epileptic disease but rather as a special syndrome characterized by its provoking factor (fever) and a typical range of 3 months to 5 years. Although specific genes affecting the majority of FS cases have not been identified yet,...

Genome-wide analyses of the genetic predisposition to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in different isolates and populations have identified regions of interest called non insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) 1, 2, 3 and 4. At the NIDDM1 locus (2q37.3), calpain-10 (CAPN10) encodes for a ubiquitously expressed protease implicated in the two fu...