AccScience Publishing / BH / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/bh.4281
CASE REPORT

Brain pathology in an infant with PROKR2 microduplication: A case report

Elvio Della Giustina1* Tiziana Salviato1 Maria Cristina Davolio2 Sabino Pelosi2 Luca Fabbiani1 Stefania Caramaschi1 Luca Reggiani Bonetti1
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1 Division of Pathology, Maternal-Pediatric and Adult Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), Modena, Italy
2 Department of Legal Medicine and Risk Management, Faculty of Medicine, AUSL Modena, Modena, Italy
Submitted: 18 July 2024 | Revised: 13 October 2024 | Accepted: 26 November 2024 | Published: 18 December 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Overexpression of prokineticins and their receptors is increasingly recognized as a contributing factor in heart failure and often fatal myocyte necrosis. Activation of prokineticin pathways is typically triggered by cerebral hypoxia and ischemia, viral and bacterial infections, inflammatory and immune responses, or energy deprivation leading to cell apoptosis. However, experimental models have demonstrated that prokineticin pathway activation can also occur independently due to aberrant expressions of specific microduplicated/microdeleted genes. Although prokineticins may play a causal role in cardiac death in adults and children with abnormalities of accessory pathways between the atria and ventricles, they have never been reported to cause brain injuries, especially in neonates. This report describes an infant born with facial dysmorphisms and moderate hypoxic distress at birth but without evidence of atrioventricular conduction defects, viral or bacterial infections, or severe metabolic dysfunction. Despite these findings, neuropathologic examination following the infant’s death at 5 months revealed recent necrotic foci in the cerebral cortex and, in particular, older brain lesions with features indicative of metabolic energy failure in subcortical structures. Genetic analysis identified a rare prokineticin receptor 2 (PROKR2) gene microduplication, which, in the absence of other identifiable causes, is strongly implicated as a contributing factor in the observed chronic brain lesions. These findings suggest that PROKR2 gene microduplication may contribute to unexplained neonatal brain injury, warranting further investigation.

Keywords
Prokineticin receptor 2
Microduplication
Heart failure
Cerebral necrosis
Cardiac injury
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Brain & Heart, Electronic ISSN: 2972-4139 Published by AccScience Publishing