Hereditary lung diseases and modern possibilities of genetic testing

Abstract

The European Respiratory Society website gives the following criterion for the disease to be classified as rare (orphan) - the disease occurs in 1 person per 2 000. One of the well-studied rare lung diseases is cystic fibrosis (CF), which is often considered a medical care model for patients with other orphan diseases. However, effective diagnostics and therapies have not yet been developed for many other rare diseases. Moreover, their true prevalence remains unknown because these diseases often go undiagnosed. One of the problems in diagnosing rare diseases is the lack of knowledge among physicians.The aim of this review is to provide a brief clinical and genetic description of rare hereditary lung diseases and to show modern genetic diagnostics to raise awareness among physicians. Data from 95 articles on hereditary lung diseases were used.Results. The results of the analysis of lung diseases associated with bronchiectasis, fibrosis, pneumothorax, and hereditary storage diseases are presented. Genetics and diagnostics, including the three-step molecular genetic testing for cystic fibrosis, are considered in detail. The diagnosis has been developed for both neonatal screening and clinical manifestations. The emergence of targeted therapy based on genetic diagnosis makes neonatal screening even more relevant and leads to an increase in life expectancy. A patient registry was established within 10 years. A detailed analysis of the diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is given, taking into account the absence of a single “golden” standard for the diagnosis of PCD. The genetic basis of the most common hereditary diseases and modern possibilities of their diagnosis are discussed, including sequencing of genes responsible for the development of orphan diseases using standard Sanger sequencing methods and next-generation sequencing, and creating multigene panels.Conclusion. New molecular diagnostic methods will help to understand the nature of orphan lung diseases, study their epidemiology, and develop new diagnostic algorithms. The study of the genetic causes of rare diseases may serve as a basis for the development of targeted therapy.