Caner Aytekin

IL-12Rβ1 Deficiency in Two of Fifty Children with Severe Tuberculosis from Iran, Morocco, and Turkey

Background and Objectives In the last decade, autosomal recessive IL-12Rβ1 deficiency has been diagnosed in four children with severe tuberculosis from three unrelated families from Morocco, Spain, and Turkey, providing proof-of-principle that tuberculosis in otherwise healthy children may result from single-gene inborn errors of immunity. We aimed to estimate the fraction of children developing severe tuberculosis due to IL-12Rβ1 deficiency in areas endemic for tuberculosis and where parental consanguinity is common. Methods and Principal Findings We searched for IL12RB1 mutations in a series of 50 children from Iran, Morocco, and Turkey. All children had established severe pulmonary and/or disseminated tuberculosis requiring hospitalization and were otherwise normally resistant to weakly virulent BCG vaccines and environmental mycobacteria. In one child from Iran and another from Morocco, homozygosity for loss-of-function IL12RB1 alleles was documented, resulting in complete IL-12Rβ1 deficiency. Despite the small sample studied, our findings suggest that IL-12Rβ1 deficiency is not a very rare cause of pediatric tuberculosis in these countries, where it should be considered in selected children with severe disease. Significance This finding may have important medical implications, as recombinant IFN-γ is an effective treatment for mycobacterial infections in IL-12Rβ1-deficient patients. It also provides additional support for the view that severe tuberculosis in childhood may result from a collection of single-gene inborn errors of immunity.

Inherited IL-17RC deficiency in patients with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis

Autosomal-recessive IL-17RA, IL-17RC, and ACT1 deficiencies and autosomal-dominant IL-17F deficiency in humans underlie susceptibility to chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis.

Inherited and acquired immunodeficiencies underlying tuberculosis in childhood.

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) and a few related mycobacteria, is a devastating disease, killing more than a million individuals per year worldwide. However, its pathogenesis remains largely elusive, as only a small proportion of infected individuals develop clinical disease either during primary infection or during reactivation from latency or secondary infection. Subacute, hematogenous, and extrapulmonary disease tends to be more frequent in infants, children, and teenagers than in adults. Life‐threatening primary TB of childhood can result from known acquired or inherited immunodeficiencies, although the vast majority of cases remain unexplained. We review here the conditions conferring a predisposition to childhood clinical diseases caused by mycobacteria, including not only M.tb but also weakly virulent mycobacteria, such as BCG vaccines and environmental mycobacteria. Infections with weakly virulent mycobacteria are much rarer than TB, but the inherited and acquired immunodeficiencies underlying these infections are much better known. Their study has also provided genetic and immunological insights into childhood TB, as illustrated by the discovery of single‐gene inborn errors of IFN‐γ immunity underlying severe cases of TB. Novel findings are expected from ongoing and future human genetic studies of childhood TB in countries that combine a high proportion of consanguineous marriages, a high incidence of TB, and an excellent clinical care, such as Iran, Morocco, and Turkey.

Clinical Features of Candidiasis in Patients With Inherited Interleukin 12 Receptor β1 Deficiency

BACKGROUND Interleukin 12Rβ1 (IL-12Rβ1)-deficient patients are prone to clinical disease caused by mycobacteria, Salmonella, and other intramacrophagic pathogens, probably because of impaired interleukin 12-dependent interferon γ production. About 25% of patients also display mucocutaneous candidiasis, probably owing to impaired interleukin 23-dependent interleukin 17 immunity. The clinical features and outcome of candidiasis in these patients have not been described before, to our knowledge. We report here the clinical signs of candidiasis in 35 patients with IL-12Rβ1 deficiency. RESULTS Most (n = 71) of the 76 episodes of candidiasis were mucocutaneous. Isolated oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC) was the most common presentation (59 episodes, 34 patients) and was recurrent or persistent in 26 patients. Esophageal candidiasis (n = 7) was associated with proven OPC in 2 episodes, and cutaneous candidiasis (n = 2) with OPC in 1 patient, whereas isolated vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC; n = 3) was not. Five episodes of proven invasive candidiasis were documented in 4 patients; 1 of these episodes was community acquired in the absence of any other comorbid condition. The first episode of candidiasis occurred earlier in life (median age±standard deviation, 1.5 ± 7.87 years) than infections with environmental mycobacteria (4.29 ± 11.9 years), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (4 ± 3.12 years), or Salmonella species (4.58 ± 4.17 years) or other rare infections (3 ± 11.67 years). Candidiasis was the first documented infection in 19 of the 35 patients, despite the vaccination of 10 of these 19 patients with live bacille Calmette-Guérin. CONCLUSIONS Patients who are deficient in IL-12Rβ1 may have candidiasis, usually mucocutaneous, which is frequently recurrent or persistent. Candidiasis may be the first clinical manifestation in these patients.

Heterogeneous clinical presentation in ICF syndrome: correlation with underlying gene defects

Immunodeficiency with centromeric instability and facial anomalies (ICF) syndrome is a primary immunodeficiency, predominantly characterized by agammaglobulinemia or hypoimmunoglobulinemia, centromere instability and facial anomalies. Mutations in two genes have been discovered to cause ICF syndrome: DNMT3B and ZBTB24. To characterize the clinical features of this syndrome, as well as genotype–phenotype correlations, we compared clinical and genetic data of 44 ICF patients. Of them, 23 had mutations in DNMT3B (ICF1), 13 patients had mutations in ZBTB24 (ICF2), whereas for 8 patients, the gene defect has not yet been identified (ICFX). While at first sight these patients share the same immunological, morphological and epigenetic hallmarks of the disease, systematic evaluation of all reported informative cases shows that: (1) the humoral immunodeficiency is generally more pronounced in ICF1 patients, (2) B- and T-cell compartments are both involved in ICF1 and ICF2, (3) ICF2 patients have a significantly higher incidence of intellectual disability and (4) congenital malformations can be observed in some ICF1 and ICF2 cases. It is expected that these observations on prevalence and clinical presentation will facilitate mutation-screening strategies and help in diagnostic counseling.

Genetic, immunological, and clinical features of patients with bacterial and fungal infections due to inherited IL-17RA deficiency

Significance Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC) is defined as persistent or recurrent infections of the skin and/or mucosae by commensal fungi of the Candida genus. It is often seen in patients with T-cell deficiencies, whether inherited or acquired, who typically suffer from multiple infectious diseases. Rare patients are otherwise healthy and display isolated CMC, which often segregates as a Mendelian trait. In 2011, we described the first genetic cause of isolated CMC, with autosomal recessive (AR), complete IL-17 receptor A (IL-17RA) deficiency, in a single patient. We report here 21 patients from 12 unrelated kindreds, homozygous for 12 different mutant alleles that underlie AR IL-17RA deficiency. All patients have isolated CMC and their cells do not respond to IL-17A, -17F, and -17E/IL-25. Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC) is defined as recurrent or persistent infection of the skin, nails, and/or mucosae with commensal Candida species. The first genetic etiology of isolated CMC—autosomal recessive (AR) IL-17 receptor A (IL-17RA) deficiency—was reported in 2011, in a single patient. We report here 21 patients with complete AR IL-17RA deficiency, including this first patient. Each patient is homozygous for 1 of 12 different IL-17RA alleles, 8 of which create a premature stop codon upstream from the transmembrane domain and have been predicted and/or shown to prevent expression of the receptor on the surface of circulating leukocytes and dermal fibroblasts. Three other mutant alleles create a premature stop codon downstream from the transmembrane domain, one of which encodes a surface-expressed receptor. Finally, the only known missense allele (p.D387N) also encodes a surface-expressed receptor. All of the alleles tested abolish cellular responses to IL-17A and -17F homodimers and heterodimers in fibroblasts and to IL-17E/IL-25 in leukocytes. The patients are currently aged from 2 to 35 y and originate from 12 unrelated kindreds. All had their first CMC episode by 6 mo of age. Fourteen patients presented various forms of staphylococcal skin disease. Eight were also prone to various bacterial infections of the respiratory tract. Human IL-17RA is, thus, essential for mucocutaneous immunity to Candida and Staphylococcus, but otherwise largely redundant. A diagnosis of AR IL-17RA deficiency should be considered in children or adults with CMC, cutaneous staphylococcal disease, or both, even if IL-17RA is detected on the cell surface.

Complete deficiency of the IL-12 receptor β1 chain: three unrelated Turkish children with unusual clinical features

Complete interleukin-12 receptor β1 deficiency is the most frequent known genetic etiology of the syndrome of Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial diseases (MSMD, OMIM 209950). Eleven disorders caused by different types of mutations in five different gene defects related to the IL-12 and IL-23/interferon (IFN)-γ axis have been described to date [2]. Refer to Fig. 1 for the pathways of IL-12/IL-23-dependent interferon IFN-gamma immunity. Patients with MSMD are vulnerable to the BacillusCalmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine species Mycobacterium bovis, environmental mycobacteria and M. tuberculosis. Infectious diseases other than those caused by Salmonella species, the latter of which infect almost one-half of all patients, are rare [1, 3, 6]. We report here various and unusual clinical manifestations of three unrelated patients with complete IL-12Rβ1 deficiency due to three different mutations in the IL-12RB1 gene, of which two are novel (711insC, 628–644dup). The first patient was an 1-year-old infant girl who had BCG lymphadenitis at 6 months of age and disseminated mycobacterial infection complicated with spontaneous pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema at 12 months of age. She was treated with isoniazide, rifampin, ethambutol, amikacin, clarithromycin and clofazimine. Pre-tracheal fasciotomy was undertaken for subcutaneous emphysema. A complete IL-12 receptor β1 deficiency associated with the 711insC mutation in IL-12RB1 was detected (Fig. 2). The patient is still in remission. The second patient was an 19-month-old infant boy who presented with five episodes of infections attributable to Salmonella and two episodes of Salmonella enteritidis meningitis. There was no mycobacterial disease, including no adverse reaction to BCG immunization that was practiced at the age of 2 months. He was treated with meropenem, rIFN-γ and external ventricular drainage and then ventriculo-peritoneal shunting for hydrocephalus. Immunologic and molecular genetic examinations revealed complete IL-12Rβ1 deficiency and a IL-12RB1 783+ 1G>A mutation (Fig. 2) [3]. The third patient, a 4.5-year-old boy, had fistulized BCG lymphadenitis in early childhood followed by disseminated mycobacterial infection and splenic abscess with Salmonella bacteremia at 44 months of age. He was treated with meropenem and with isoniazide, rifampin, ethambutol, clarithromycin and amikacin. The patient improved; however, he was lost to follow-up and has been reported to have died. DNA sequencing revealed a 628–644dup mutation in IL-12RB1 (Fig. 2). A complete IL-12 receptor β1 deficiency is suspected. All three patients had persistent oral moniliasis. Among a total of 56 cases of IL-12 receptor β1 deficiency reported in the literature, the rate of infection with BCG M. bovis is 73% (27/37), environmental mycobacteria 21% (22/56), non-typhoidal Salmonella species 46% (26/56) and tuberculosis 7% (4/56) [4–6]. Paracoccidioides brasiliensis-disseminated disease has also recently been reported in an IL-12Rβ1-deficient patient. None of the 37 patients with BCG disease subsequently G. Tanir (*) . N. Tuygun . C. Aydemir . E. C. Boduroglu Dr. Sami Ulus Children Health and Diseases Training and Research Center, Hosdere Caddesi 166/3, Yukari Ayranci, 06550 Ankara, Turkey e-mail: gonultanir58@yahoo.com Fax: +90-312-3170353

An unconditioned bone marrow transplantation in a child with purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficiency and its unique complication

Abstract:  Purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficiency is a rare immunodeficiency syndrome characterized by recurrent infections, neurological dysfunction, and autoimmunity. Early diagnosis and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation may reverse the dismal prognosis in PNP deficiency. This report presents a new PNP deficiency case successfully transplanted without a conditioning regimen from an HLA‐identical family donor, who developed a complication of disseminated BCG infection.

Purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficiency with fatal course in two sisters

Purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) deficiency is a rare combined immunodeficiency disorder presenting with clinically recurrent infections, failure to thrive, various neurological disorders, malignancies, and autoimmune diseases. Here, we report two sisters with a fatal course of PNP deficiency due to delay in diagnosis. The first patient developed a liver abscess by Aspergillus fumigatus and the second patient developed Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex lymphadenitis and probable pulmonary tuberculosis due to disseminated BCG infection. The patients also suffered from sclerosing cholangitis. Mutation analysis of the PNP gene from both sisters revealed a homozygous mutation for a G>A at nucleotide 349 (349 G>A transition), which changes alanine 117 to theronine in exon 4 (A117T). An increased awareness of early signs, symptoms, and abnormal laboratory findings of PNP deficiency will establish the early prognosis and treatment.

Kostmann disease with developmental delay in three patients

Kostmann disease is a rare autosomal recessive form of severe congenital neutropenia characterized by maturation arrest at the stage of promyelocytes/myelocytes in bone marrow with peripheral blood absolute neutrophil counts below 0.5 × 109/L and severe recurrent bacterial infections from early infancy. Kostmann disease is caused by homozygous mutations in the gene encoding the mitochondrial protein HCLS1-associated X1. Here, we report three patients with Kostmann disease who, besides recurrent infections, have developmental delay.