Autosomal recessive deficiency of the IFNAR1 or IFNAR2 chain of the human type I IFN receptor abolishes cellular responses to IFN-α, -β, and -ω, underlies severe viral diseases, and is globally very rare, except for IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 deficiency in Western Polynesia and the Arctic, respectively. We report 11 human IFNAR1 alleles, the products of which impair but do not abolish responses to IFN-α and -ω without affecting responses to IFN-β. Ten of these alleles are rare in all populations studied, but the remaining allele (P335del) is common in Southern China (minor allele frequency ≈2%).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare condition following SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with intestinal manifestations. Genetic predisposition, including inborn errors of the OAS-RNAseL pathway, has been reported. We sequenced 154 MIS-C patients and utilized a novel statistical framework of gene burden analysis, "burdenMC," which identified an enrichment for rare predicted-deleterious variants in BTNL8 (OR = 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSystemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease, the pathophysiology and genetic basis of which are incompletely understood. Using a forward genetic screen in multiplex families with SLE, we identified an association between SLE and compound heterozygous deleterious variants in the non-receptor tyrosine kinases (NRTKs) and . Experimental blockade of ACK1 or BRK increased circulating autoantibodies in vivo in mice and exacerbated glomerular IgG deposits in an SLE mouse model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArboviral diseases are a growing global health concern. Pre-existing autoantibodies (auto-Abs) neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) can underlie encephalitis due to West Nile virus (WNV) (∼40% of patients) and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE, due to TBE virus [TBEV]) (∼10%). We report here that these auto-Abs can also underlie severe forms of rarer arboviral infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients heterozygous for germline CBL loss-of-function (LOF) variants can develop myeloid malignancy, autoinflammation, or both, if some or all of their leukocytes become homozygous for these variants through somatic loss of heterozygosity (LOH) via uniparental isodisomy. We observed an upregulation of the inflammatory gene expression signature in whole blood from these patients, mimicking monogenic inborn errors underlying autoinflammation. Remarkably, these patients had constitutively activated monocytes that secreted 10 to 100 times more inflammatory cytokines than those of healthy individuals and CBL LOF heterozygotes without LOH.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSevere defects in human IFNγ immunity predispose individuals to both Bacillus Calmette-Guérin disease and tuberculosis, whereas milder defects predispose only to tuberculosis. Here we report two adults with recurrent pulmonary tuberculosis who are homozygous for a private loss-of-function TNF variant. Neither has any other clinical phenotype and both mount normal clinical and biological inflammatory responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInherited deficiency of the RNA lariat-debranching enzyme 1 (DBR1) is a rare etiology of brainstem viral encephalitis. The cellular basis of disease and the range of viral predisposition are unclear. We report inherited DBR1 deficiency in a 14-year-old boy who suffered from isolated SARS-CoV-2 brainstem encephalitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRegardless of microbial virulence (i.e., the global infection-fatality ratio), age generally drives the prevalence of death from infection in unvaccinated humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSystemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease, the pathophysiology and genetic basis of which are incompletely understood. Using a forward genetic screen in multiplex families with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) we identified an association between SLE and compound heterozygous deleterious variants in the non-receptor tyrosine kinases (NRTKs) ACK1 and BRK. Experimental blockade of ACK1 or BRK increased circulating autoantibodies in mice and exacerbated glomerular IgG deposits in an SLE mouse model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFMS-related tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (FLT3L), encoded by FLT3LG, is a hematopoietic factor essential for the development of natural killer (NK) cells, B cells, and dendritic cells (DCs) in mice. We describe three humans homozygous for a loss-of-function FLT3LG variant with a history of various recurrent infections, including severe cutaneous warts. The patients' bone marrow (BM) was hypoplastic, with low levels of hematopoietic progenitors, particularly myeloid and B cell precursors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman genetic studies of critical COVID-19 pneumonia have revealed the essential role of type I interferon-dependent innate immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conversely, an association between the HLA-B∗15:01 allele and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated individuals was recently reported, suggesting a contribution of pre-existing T cell-dependent adaptive immunity. We report a lack of association of classical HLA alleles, including HLA-B∗15:01, with pre-omicron asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated participants in a prospective population-based study in the United States (191 asymptomatic vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBACKGROUNDWeakly virulent environmental mycobacteria (EM) can cause severe disease in HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 adults harboring neutralizing anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies (nAIGAs). The overall prevalence of nAIGAs in the general population is unknown, as are the penetrance of nAIGAs in HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 individuals and the proportion of patients with unexplained, adult-onset EM infections carrying nAIGAs.METHODSThis study analyzed the detection and neutralization of anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies (auto-Abs) from 8,430 healthy individuals of the general population, 257 HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 carriers, 1,063 patients with autoimmune disease, and 497 patients with unexplained severe disease due to EM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe describe humans with rare biallelic loss-of-function variants impairing pre-α T cell receptor (pre-TCRα) expression. Low circulating naive αβ T cell counts at birth persisted over time, with normal memory αβ and high γδ T cell counts. Their TCRα repertoire was biased, which suggests that noncanonical thymic differentiation pathways can rescue αβ T cell development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo understand natural resistance to ( ) infection, we studied people living with HIV (PLWH) in an area of high transmission. Given that alveolar leukocytes may contribute to this resistance, we performed single cell RNA-sequencing of bronchoalveolar lavage cells, unstimulated or stimulated with . We obtained high quality cells for 7 participants who were TST & IGRA positive (called LTBI) and 6 who were persistently TST & IGRA negative (called resisters).
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