Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Clinical, immunological and molecular findings of 8 patients with typical and atypical severe combined immunodeficiency: identification of 7 novel mutations by whole exome sequencing

Abstract

Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is one of the severe inborn errors of the immune system associated with life-threatening infections. Variations in SCID phenotypes, especially atypical SCID, may cause a significant delay in diagnosis. Therefore, SCID patients need to receive an early diagnosis. Here, we describe the clinical manifestations and genetic results of four SCID and atypical SCID patients. All patients (4 males and 4 females) in early infancy presented with SCID phenotypes within 6 months of birth. The mutations include RAG2 (p.I273T,p.G44X), IL7R (p.F361WfsTer17), ADA (c.780+1G>A), JAK3 (p.Q228Ter), LIG4 (p.G428R), and LAT (p.Y207fsTer33), as well as a previously reported missense mutation in RAG1 (p.A444V). The second report of LAT deficiency in SCID patients is presented in this study. Moreover, all variants were confirmed in patients and their parents as a heterozygous state by Sanger sequencing. The results of our study expand the clinical and molecular spectrum associated with SCID and leaky SCID phenotypes and provide valuable information for the clinical management of the patients.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Schematic figures of the proteins, Sanger sequencing validation, and pedigrees of the patients who presented in this study.
Fig. 2: Predicted impression of Gly428Arg substitution on LIG4 protein.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data are available on request.

References

  1. Ozturk E, Catak MC, Kiykim A, Baser D, Bilgic Eltan S, Yalcin K, et al. Clinical and laboratory factors affecting the prognosis of severe combined immunodeficiency. J Clin Immunol. 2022;42:1036–50.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Fischer A, Notarangelo LD, Neven B, Cavazzana M, Puck JM. Severe combined immunodeficiencies and related disorders. Nat Rev Dis Prim. 2015;1:15061.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Fazlollahi MR, Pourpak Z, Hamidieh AA, Movahedi M, Houshmand M, Badalzadeh M, et al. Clinical, laboratory, and molecular findings for 63 patients with severe combined immunodeficiency: a decade´s experience. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2017;27:299–304.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Cirillo E, Cancrini C, Azzari C, Martino S, Martire B, Pession A, et al. Clinical, immunological, and molecular features of typical and atypical severe combined immunodeficiency: report of the Italian primary immunodeficiency network. Front Immunol. 2019;10:1908.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Lim CK, Abolhassani H, Appelberg SK, Sundin M, Hammarstrom L. IL2RG hypomorphic mutation: identification of a novel pathogenic mutation in exon 8 and a review of the literature. Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol. 2019;15:2.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Cattaneo F, Recher M, Masneri S, Baxi SN, Fiorini C, Antonelli F, et al. Hypomorphic Janus kinase 3 mutations result in a spectrum of immune defects, including partial maternal T-cell engraftment. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2013;131:1136–45.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Sundin M, Uhlin M, Gaballa A, Ramme K, Kolios AG, Marits P, et al. Late presenting atypical severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) associated with a novel missense mutation in DCLRE1C. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2018;29:108–11.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Volk T, Pannicke U, Reisli I, Bulashevska A, Ritter J, Bjorkman A, et al. DCLRE1C (ARTEMIS) mutations causing phenotypes ranging from atypical severe combined immunodeficiency to mere antibody deficiency. Hum Mol Genet. 2015;24:7361–72.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Dvorak CC, Haddad E, Buckley RH, Cowan MJ, Logan B, Griffith LM, et al. The genetic landscape of severe combined immunodeficiency in the United States and Canada in the current era (2010-2018). J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2019;143:405–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Felgentreff K, Perez-Becker R, Speckmann C, Schwarz K, Kalwak K, Markelj G, et al. Clinical and immunological manifestations of patients with atypical severe combined immunodeficiency. Clin Immunol. 2011;141:73–82.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Perez E. Future of therapy for inborn errors of immunity. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2022;63:75–89.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Shearer WT, Dunn E, Notarangelo LD, Dvorak CC, Puck JM, Logan BR, et al. Establishing diagnostic criteria for severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID), leaky SCID, and Omenn syndrome: the Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium experience. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2014;133:1092–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Bousfiha A, Jeddane L, Picard C, Al-Herz W, Ailal F, Chatila T, et al. Human inborn errors of immunity: 2019 update of the IUIS phenotypical classification. J Clin Immunol. 2020;40:66–81.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Kopanos C, Tsiolkas V, Kouris A, Chapple CE, Albarca Aguilera M, Meyer R, et al. VarSome: the human genomic variant search engine. Bioinformatics. 2018;35:1978–80.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Richards S, Aziz N, Bale S, Bick D, Das S, Gastier-Foster J, et al. Standards and guidelines for the interpretation of sequence variants: a joint consensus recommendation of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics and the Association for Molecular Pathology. Genet Med. 2015;17:405–24.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Villa A, Sobacchi C, Notarangelo LD, Bozzi F, Abinun M, Abrahamsen TG, et al. V(D)J recombination defects in lymphocytes due to RAG mutations: severe immunodeficiency with a spectrum of clinical presentations. Blood. 2001;97:81–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Goda V, Malik A, Kalmar T, Maroti Z, Patel B, Ujhazi B, et al. Partial RAG deficiency in a patient with varicella infection, autoimmune cytopenia, and anticytokine antibodies. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pr. 2018;6:1769–71.e2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. McGrath-Morrow SA, Ndeh R, Helmin KA, Khuder B, Rothblum-Oviatt C, Collaco JM, et al. DNA methylation and gene expression signatures are associated with ataxia-telangiectasia phenotype. Sci Rep. 2020;10:7479.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Barata JT, Durum SK, Seddon B. Flip the coin: IL-7 and IL-7R in health and disease. Nat Immunol. 2019;20:1584–93.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Zhang W, Sommers CL, Burshtyn DN, Stebbins CC, DeJarnette JB, Trible RP, et al. Essential role of LAT in T cell development. Immunity. 1999;10:323–32.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Zhang W, Irvin BJ, Trible RP, Abraham RT, Samelson LE. Functional analysis of LAT in TCR-mediated signaling pathways using a LAT-deficient Jurkat cell line. Int Immunol. 1999;11:943–50.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Keller B, Zaidman I, Yousefi OS, Hershkovitz D, Stein J, Unger S, et al. Early onset combined immunodeficiency and autoimmunity in patients with loss-of-function mutation in LAT. J Exp Med. 2016;213:1185–99.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Bacchelli C, Moretti FA, Carmo M, Adams S, Stanescu HC, Pearce K, et al. Mutations in linker for activation of T cells (LAT) lead to a novel form of severe combined immunodeficiency. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2017;139:634–42.e5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Kuo CY, Garabedian E, Puck J, Cowan MJ, Sullivan KE, Buckley RH, et al. Adenosine deaminase (ADA)-deficient severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) in the US Immunodeficiency Network (USIDNet) Registry. J Clin Immunol. 2020;40:1124–31.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Li M, Chen Z, Zhu Y, Chen J. Disseminated Bacille Calmette-Guérin infection in a patient with severe combined immunodeficiency caused by JAK3 gene mutation. Pediatr Dermatol. 2019;36:672–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Stepensky P, Keller B, Shamriz O, NaserEddin A, Rumman N, Weintraub M, et al. Deep intronic mis-splicing mutation in JAK3 gene underlies T-B+NK- severe combined immunodeficiency phenotype. Clin Immunol. 2016;163:91–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. El Hawary R, Meshaal S, Mauracher AA, Opitz L, Abd Elaziz D, Lotfy S, et al. Whole-exome sequencing of T(-) B(+) severe combined immunodeficiency in Egyptian infants, JAK3 predominance and novel variants. Clin Exp Immunol. 2021;203:448–57.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Qamar F, Junejo S, Qureshi S, Seleman M, Bainter W, Massaad M, et al. A novel mutation in the JH4 domain of JAK3 causing severe combined immunodeficiency complicated by vertebral osteomyelitis. Clin Immunol. 2017;183:198–200.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Sun B, Chen Q, Wang Y, Liu D, Hou J, Wang W, et al. LIG4 syndrome: clinical and molecular characterization in a Chinese cohort. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2020;15:131.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Altmann T, Gennery AR. DNA ligase IV syndrome; a review. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2016;11:137.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Felgentreff K, Baxi SN, Lee YN, Dobbs K, Henderson LA, Csomos K, et al. Ligase-4 deficiency causes distinctive immune abnormalities in asymptomatic individuals. J Clin Immunol. 2016;36:341–53.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  32. Taskiran EZ, Sonmez HE, Kosukcu C, Tavukcuoglu E, Yazici G, Esendagli G, et al. A novel missense LIG4 mutation in a patient with a phenotype mimicking Behçet’s disease. J Clin Immunol. 2019;39:99–105.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Taki M, Miah T, Secord E. Newborn screening for severe combined immunodeficiency. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2019;66:913–23.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Cuvelier GDE, Logan BR, Prockop SE, Buckley RH, Kuo CY, Griffith LM, et al. Outcomes following treatment for ADA-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency: a report from the PIDTC. Blood. 2022;140:685–705.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by Elite Researcher Grant Committee under award number 958326 from the National Institutes for Medical Research Development (NIMAD), Tehran, Iran; Immunology, Asthma & Allergy Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran; B.G. is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GR1617/14-1/iPAD; SFB1160/2_B5; RESIST–EXC 2155–Project ID 390874280; and CIBSS–EXC-2189–Project ID 390939984) and the BMBF (GAIN 01GM1910A) and S.B. is funded by Service d’Immunologie Biologique, Plateau Technique de Biologie, Pôle de Biologie, Nouvel Hôpital Civil, 1 place de l’Hôpital, 67091 Strasbourg, France.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Conceptualization: ZP, ZA, MRF, SB; Methodology: ZA, MM, HH, MB, RC, AM, ACGO, MP; Validation: ZA, MM, HH, MB, RC, AM, MSB; Formal analysis: ZA, MM, HH, MB; Investigation: ZA, RC, AM, ACGO, MP; Clinical data and analysis: ZP, MRF, MS, MF, MM and LM; Supervision: ZP, ZA, MRF, SB, BG, Writing Original Drafts: ZA, ZP MRF; Revision: MRF, ZP, ZA SB; All authors read and approved the manuscript before submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Seiamak Bahram or Zahra Pourpak.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of Immunology, Asthma & Allergy Research Institute. Written informed consent was obtained from the patients’ parents.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Alizadeh, Z., Fazlollahi, M.R., Mazinani, M. et al. Clinical, immunological and molecular findings of 8 patients with typical and atypical severe combined immunodeficiency: identification of 7 novel mutations by whole exome sequencing. Genes Immun 24, 207–214 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-023-00215-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-023-00215-w

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links