| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
By
From the Division of Immunology/Hematology, University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland; the Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC; the Department of Medicine. Triemli Hospital, Zurich Switzerland; the Neuropathology Institute of the University of Zurich, Switzerland; and the Eudowood Division of Pediatric Immunology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
Adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency typically causes severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) in infants. We report metabolic, immunologic, and genetic findings in two ADA-deficient adults with distinct phenotypes. Patient no. 1 (39 years of age) had combined immunodeficiency. She had frequent infections, lymphopenia, and recurrent hepatitis as a child but did relatively well in her second and third decades. Then she developed chronic sinopulmonary infections, including tuberculosis, and hepatobiliary disease; she died of viral leukoencephalopathy at 40 years of age. Patient no. 2, a healthy 28-year-old man with normal immune function, was identified after his niece died of SCID. Both patients lacked erythrocyte ADA activity but had only modestly elevated deoxyadenosine nucleotides. Both were heteroallelic for missense mutations: patient no. 1, G216R and P126Q (novel); patient no. 2, R101Q and A215T. Three of these mutations eliminated ADA activity, but A215T reduced activity by only 85%. Owing to a single nucleotide change in the middle of exon 7, A215T also appeared to induce exon 7 skipping. ADA deficiency is treatable and should be considered in older patients with unexplained lymphopenia and immune deficiency, who may also manifest autoimmunity or unexplained hepatobiliary disease. Metabolic status and genotype may help in assessing prognosis of more mildly affected patients.
DEFICIENCY OF adenosine deaminase (ADA) typically causes Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID) in infants, who present with growth failure, opportunistic infections, lymphopenia, and defective cellular and humoral immune function.1,2 Immunodeficiency results from toxic effects of ADA substrates, including apoptosis induced by deoxyadenosine triphosphate (dATP) pool expansion3-5 and inhibition of transmethylation reactions caused by impaired catabolism of S-adenosylhomocysteine6-8 (reviewed in Hershfield et al2 ). ADA- SCID is treatable by marrow transplantation and enzyme replacement; gene therapy trials are underway.
After the discovery of ADA- SCID in 1972, screening programs identified rare healthy children whose red blood cells (RBCs) lacked ADA but whose nucleated cells had 5% to 70% of normal activity (partial deficiency).9-13 More recently, ADA deficiency has been discovered in several older children and in two sisters in their mid-30s with late or adult onset of immunodeficiency.14-17 More than 40 mutant ADA alleles have been identified.2,18 In SCID patients, neither allele encodes an active enzyme, whereas in more mildly affected patients, at least one ADA gene product appears to have some function. The extent of deoxyadenosine (dAdo) induced dATP accumulation and S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase inactivation in RBCs reflect the degree of ADA deficiency.19-21
Whether some children with partial ADA deficiency progress to an immune deficient state is unclear. To date, ADA deficiency has been identified as a cause of adult-onset immunodeficiency in only a single family.17 Because of atypical features, older patients may be misdiagnosed with a disease of unknown cause, such as common variable immunodeficiency or idiopathic CD4+ T lymphocytopenia.22,23 To better define and increase awareness of the spectrum of manifestations in adults, we report the metabolic, immunologic, and genetic findings in two patients diagnosed with ADA deficiency in adult life: one overtly immunodeficient and the other still in good health.
Study Subjects
Mutational Analysis
Single-Strand Conformational Polymorphism (SSCP) Analysis
Screening cDNA Subclones for the R101Q Mutation and Retention of Exon 7 cDNA nt 96 to 872 (ATG start codon through exon 8) was amplified with primers 3 and 11. Bsg I digestion then distinguished exon 4 wild type (resistant) from R101Q mutant clones (sensitive). cDNA nt 471 to 1,126 (exons 5 to 11) was amplified using primers 12 and 13. Digestion with Nci I then distinguished clones containing exon 7 (sensitive) from those lacking exon 7 (resistant). The normal exon 7 Nci I site is unaffected by the A215T mutation.Construction of ADA cDNA Containing the P126Q or A215T Mutations P1260 cDNA. Using recombinant PCR,28 two primary PCR reactions were performed with wild-type ADA cDNA as template and the primer pairs (mutation underlined): (1) P126Q (+), 5'GAAGGGGACCTCACCC AGACGA and primer 4; and (2) primer 3 and P126Q (-) 5'CCACCTCGTCT GGGTGAGGT. The two PCR products (having a central 15-bp overlap) were gel purified, combined, annealed, and amplified with primers 3 and 4. The final product was gel purified, cut with EcoRI/HindIII, and cloned into pBluescript (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA). Sequencing identified the P126Q mutation and no other change.
Effect of Mutations on ADA Catalytic Activity As reported,16,27,29 mRNA transcribed in vitro from wild-type and mutant ADA cDNA subclones was translated in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate in the presence of [35S]methionine. Aliquots containing equal amounts of wild-type and mutant translation products (shown by 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate-mercaptoethanol polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and fluorography) were electrophoresed on cellulose acetate and stained for ADA activity in situ.
Patient No. 1 (CKu) and Family In RBC of patient no. 1, ADA activity was 0.2 nmol/h/mg protein (normal ± 1 standard deviation [SD], 80.4 ± 40.2); S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase activity was 0.59 nmol/h/mg (normal, 4.2 ± 1.9); and total deoxyadenosine nucleotides (dAXP) were 28 nmol/mL (normal, <2). Blood mononuclear cells were not available for analysis.
Patient No. 2 and Family
Activity of Expressed Mutant ADA Alleles
Lymphopenia and immune deficiency were appreciated in patient no. 1 at age 5, but ADA deficiency was then unknown and only aggressive treatment of infections could be offered. Remarkably, she survived and did relatively well from puberty until age 28, when she began to have serious respiratory infections, including tuberculosis. She developed chronic pulmonary and hepatobiliary insufficiency and at 40, fatal leukoencephalopathy caused by JC papovavirus, a disorder prevalent in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).34 This history suggests that cellular and humoral immune dysfunction were not initially as complete as in SCID, which if uncorrected is fatal by age 1 to 2 years, but decreased to critical levels in the fourth decade, presumably owing to ongoing exposure to toxic metabolites. We wish to speculate that unexplained episodes of hepatitis from childhood in patient no. 1 may also have had a metabolic basis. Thus, hepatocellular degeneration is fatal in newborn ADA knockout mice,35,36 and we have reported a child with ADA- SCID who presented with persistent neonatal hepatitis, apparently without infectious cause, which resolved rapidly with enzyme replacement.37
Submitted August 2, 1996;
accepted November 25, 1996.
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page
charge payment. This article must therefore be hearly marked
``advertisment'' in accordance with 18 U.S.C. section 1734 solely to
indicate this fact. We gratefully acknowledge the expert technical assistance of Stephan Toutain and Marlis Schmid.
1. Giblett ER, Anderson JE, Cohen F, Pollara B, Meuwissen HJ: Adenosine deaminase deficiency in two patients with severely impaired cellular immunity. Lancet 2:1067 1972
2. Hershfield MS, Mitchell BS: Immunodeficiency diseases caused by adenosine deaminase deficiency and purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficiency, in Scriver CR, Beaudet AL, Sly WS, Valle D (eds): The Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease. New York, NY, McGraw-Hill, 1995, p 1725
3.
Seto S,
Carrera CJ,
Kubota M,
Wasson DB,
Carson DA:
Mechanism of deoxyadenosine and 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine toxicity to nondividing human lymphocytes.
J Clin Invest
75:377,
1985
4.
Gao X,
Knudsen TB,
Ibrahim MM,
Haldar S:
Bcl-2 relieves deoxyadenylate stress and suppresses apoptosis in pre-B leukemia cells.
Cell Death Diff
2:69,
1995
5.
Benveniste P,
Cohen A:
p53 expression is required for thymocyte apoptosis induced by adenosine deaminase deficiency.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
92:8373,
1995
6.
Kredich NM,
Hershfield MS:
S-Adenosylhomocysteine toxicity in normal and adenosine kinase-deficient lymphoblasts of human origin.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
76:2450,
1979
7.
Hershfield MH,
Kredich NM:
Resistance of an adenosine kinase-deficient human lymphoblastoid cell line to effects of deoxyadenosine on growth, S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase inactivation, and dATP accumulation.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
77:4292,
1980
8.
Wolos JA,
Frondorf KA,
Esser RE:
Immunosuppression mediated by an inhibitor of S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine hydrolase.
J Immunol
151:526,
1993[Abstract]
9.
Jenkins T,
Rabson AR,
Nurse GT,
Lane AB:
Deficiency of adenosine deaminase not associated with severe combined immunodeficiency.
J Pediatr
89:732,
1976[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
10.
Daddona PE,
Davidson BL,
Perignon JL,
Kelley WN:
Genetic expression in partial adenosine deaminase deficiency: mRNA levels and protein turnover for the enzyme variants in human B-lymphoblast cell lines.
J Biol Chem
260:3875,
1985
11.
Hirschhorn R,
Ellenbogen A:
Genetic heterogeneity in adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency: Five different mutations in five new patients with partial ADA deficiency.
Am J Hum Genet
38:13,
1986[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
12.
Hirschhorn R,
Tzall S,
Ellenbogen A,
Orkin SH:
Identification of a point mutation resulting in a heat-labile adenosine deaminase (ADA) in two unrelated children with partial ADA deficiency.
J Clin Invest
83:497,
1989
13.
Hirschhorn R,
Tzall S,
Ellenbogen A:
Hot spot mutations in adenosine deaminase deficiency.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
87:6171,
1990
14.
Geffner ME,
Stiehm ER,
Stephure D,
Cowan MJ:
Probable autoimmune thyroid disease and combined immunodeficiency disease.
Am J Dis Child
140:1194,
1986
15.
Levy Y,
Hershfield MS,
Fernandez-Mejia C,
Polmar SH,
Scudiery D,
Berger M,
Sorensen RU:
Adenosine deaminase deficiency with late onset of recurrent infections: Response to treatment with polyethylene glycol-modified adenosine deaminase (PEG-ADA).
J Pediatr
113:312,
1988[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
16.
Santisteban I,
Arredondo-Vega FX,
Kelly S,
Mary A,
Fischer A,
Hummell DS,
Lawton A,
Sorensen RU,
Stiehm ER,
Uribe L,
Weinberg K,
Hershfield MS:
Novel splicing, missense, and deletion mutations in 7 adenosine deaminase deficient patients with late/delayed onset of combined immunodeficiency disease: Contribution of genotype to phenotype.
J Clin Invest
92:2291,
1993
17.
Shovlin CL,
Hughes JMB,
Simmonds HA,
Fairbanks L,
Deacock S,
Lechler R,
Roberts I,
Webster ADB:
Adult presentation of adenosine deaminase deficiency.
Lancet
341:1471,
1993[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
18. Hirschhorn R: Adenosine deaminase deficiency: Molecular basis and recent developments. Clin Immunol Immunopathol 76:S219, 1995 (suppl)
19.
Coleman MS,
Donofrio J,
Hutton JJ,
Hahn L,
Daoud A,
Lampkin B,
Dyminski J:
Identification and quantification of adenine deoxynucleotides in erythrocytes of a patient with adenosine deaminase deficiency and severe combined immunodeficiency.
J Biol Chem
253:1619,
1978
20.
Cohen A,
Hirschhorn R,
Horowitz SD,
Rubinstein A,
Polmar SH,
Hong R,
Martin DW Jr:
Deoxyadenosine triphosphate as a potentially toxic metabolite in adenosine deaminase deficiency.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
75:472,
1978
21.
Hershfield MS,
Kredich NM,
Ownby DR,
Ownby H,
Buckley R:
In vivo inactivation of erythrocyte S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase by 2'-deoxyadenosine in adenosine deaminase-deficient patients.
J Clin Invest
63:807,
1979
22.
Fauci AS:
CD4+ T lymphocytopenia without HIV infection
23.
Laurence J,
Mitra D,
Steiner M,
Lynch DH,
Siegal FP,
Staiano-Coico L:
Apoptotic depletion of CD4+ T cells in idiopathic CD4+ T lymphocytopenia.
J Clin Invest
97:672,
1996[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
24.
Wiginton DA,
Adrian GS,
Hutton JJ:
Sequence of human adenosine deaminase cDNA including the coding region and a small intron.
Nucleic Acids Res
12:2439,
1984
25.
Wiginton DA,
Kaplan DJ,
States JC,
Akeson AL,
Perme CM,
Bilyk IJ,
Vaughn AJ,
Lattier DL,
Hutton JJ:
Complete sequence and structure of the gene for human adenosine deaminase.
Biochemistry
25:8234,
1986[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
26.
Arredondo-Vega FX,
Santisteban I,
Kelly S,
Schlossman C,
Umetsu D,
Hershfield MS:
Correct splicing despite a G > A mutation at the invariant first nucleotide of a 5' splice site: A possible basis for disparate clinical phenotypes in siblings with adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency.
Am J Hum Genet
54:820,
1994[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
27.
Santisteban I,
Arredondo-Vega FX,
Kelly S,
Debré M,
Fischer A,
Pérignon JL,
Hilman B,
ElDahr J,
Dreyfus GH,
Gelfand EW,
Howell PL,
Hershfield MS:
Four new adenosine deaminase mutations, altering a zinc-binding histidine, two conserved alanines, and a 5' splice site.
Hum Mut
5:243,
1995[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
28. Higuchi R: Recombinant PCR, in Innis MA, Gelfand DH, Sninsky JJ, White TJ (eds): PCR Protocols. San Diego, CA, Academic, 1990, p 177
29.
Santisteban I,
Arredondo-Vega FX,
Kelly S,
Loubser M,
Meydan N,
Roifman C,
Howell PL,
Bowen T,
Weinberg KI,
Schroeder ML,
Hershfield MS:
Three new adenosine deaminase mutations that define a splicing enhancer and cause severe and partial phenotypes: Implications for evolution of a CpG hotspot and expression of a transduced ADA cDNA.
Hum Molec Genet
4:2081,
1995
30.
Hirschhorn R,
Chakravarti V,
Puck J,
Douglas SD:
Homozygosity for a newly identified missense mutation in a patient with very severe combined immunodeficiency due to adenosine deaminase deficiency (ADA-SCID).
Am J Hum Genet
49:878,
1991[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
31.
Akeson AL,
Wiginton DA,
States JC,
Perme CM,
Dusing MR,
Hutton JJ:
Mutations in the human adenosine deaminase gene that affect protein structure and RNA splicing.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
84:5947,
1987
32.
Chang ZY,
Nygaard P,
Chinault AC,
Kellems RE:
Deduced amino acid sequence of Escherichia coli adenosine deaminase reveals evolutionarily conserved amino acid residues: Implications for catalytic function.
Biochem
30:2273,
1991[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
33.
Kawamoto H,
Ito K,
Kashii S,
Monden S,
Fujita M,
Norioka M,
Sasai Y,
Okuma M:
A point mutation in the 5' splice region of intron 7 causes a deletion of exon 7 in adenosine deaminase mRNA.
J Cell Biochem
51:322,
1993[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
34.
von Einsidel RW,
Fife TD,
Aksamit AJ,
Cornford ME,
Secor DL,
Tomiyasu U,
Itabashi HH,
Vinters HV:
Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in AIDS: A clinicopathological study and review of the literature.
J Neurol
240:391,
1993[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
35.
Wakamiya M,
Blackburn MR,
Jurecic R,
McArthur MJ,
Geske RS,
Cartwright J Jr,
Mitani K,
Vaishnav S,
Belmont JW,
Kellems RE,
Finegold MJ,
Montgomery CA Jr,
Bradley A,
Caskey CT:
Disruption of the adenosine deaminase gene causes hepatocellular impairment and perinatal lethality in mice.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
92:3673,
1995
36.
Migchielsen AAJ,
Breuer ML,
van Roon MA,
te Riele H,
Zurcher C,
Ossendorp F,
Toutain S,
Hershfield MS,
Berns A,
Valerio D:
Adenosine deaminase-deficient mice die perinatally, exhibiting liver-cell degeneration, small intestinal cell death, and lung atelectasis.
Nat Genet
10:279,
1995[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
37.
Bollinger ME,
Arredondo-Vega FX,
Santisteban I,
Schwarz K,
Hershfield MS,
Lederman HM:
Hepatic dysfunction as a complication of adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency.
N Engl J Med
334:1367,
1996
38.
Shovlin CL,
Simmonds HA,
Fairbanks L,
Deacock S,
Hughes JMB,
Lechler R,
Webster ADB,
Sun X-M,
Webb JC,
Soutar AK:
Adult onset immunodeficiency caused by inherited adenosine deaminase deficiency.
J Immunol
153:2331,
1994[Abstract]
39.
Hirschhorn R,
Yang DR,
Insel RA,
Ballow M:
Severe combined immunodeficiency of reduced severity due to homozygosity for an adenosine deaminase missense mutation (ARg253Pro).
Cell Immunol
152:383,
1993[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
40. Henderson JF, Smith CM: Mechanisms of deoxycoformycin toxicity in vivo, in Tattersal MHN, Fox RM (eds): Nucleosides in Cancer Treatment. Sydney, Australia, Academic, 1981, p 208
41.
Smith CM,
Henderson JF:
Deoxyadenosine triphosphate accumulation in erythrocytes of deoxycoformycin-treated mice.
Biochem Pharmacol
31:1545,
1982[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
42.
Wilson DK,
Rudolph FB,
Quiocho FA:
Atomic structure of adenosine deaminase complexed with a transition-state analog: Understanding catalysis and immunodeficiency mutations.
Science
252:1278,
1991
43.
Arredondo-Vega FX,
Kurtzberg J,
Chaffee S,
Santisteban I,
Reisner E,
Povey MS,
Hershfield MS:
Paradoxical expression of adenosine deaminase in T cells cultured from a patient with adenosine deaminase deficiency and combined immunodeficiency.
J Clin Invest
86:444,
1990
44.
Hirschhorn R,
Yang DR,
Israni A,
Huie ML,
Ownby DR:
Somatic mosaicism for a newly identified splice-site mutation in a patient with adenosine deaminase-deficient immunodeficiency and spontaneous clinical recovery.
Am J Hum Genet
55:59,
1994[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
45.
Hirschhorn R,
Yang DR,
Puck JM,
Huie ML,
Jiang C-K,
Kurlandsky LE:
Spontaneous reversion to normal of an inherited mutation in a patient with adenosine deaminase deficiency.
Nat Genet
13:290,
1996[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
46.
Hirschhorn R,
Roegner V,
Jenkins T,
Seaman C,
Piomelli S,
Borkowsky W:
Erythrocyte adenosine deaminase deficiency without immunodeficiency. Evidence for an unstable mutant enzyme.
J Clin Invest
64:1130,
1979
47.
Daddona PE,
Mitchell BS,
Meuwissen HJ,
Davidson BL,
Wilson JM,
Koller CA:
Adenosine deaminase deficiency with normal immune function.
J Clin Invest
72:483,
1983
48.
Berget SM:
Exon recognition in vertebrate splicing.
J Biol Chem
270:2411,
1995
49.
Aoufouchi S,
Yelamos J,
Milstein C:
Nonsense mutations inhibit RNA splicing in a cell-free system: Recognition of mutant codon is independent of protein synthesis.
Cell
85:415,
1996[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
50.
Hershfield MS,
Buckley RH,
Greenberg ML,
Melton AL,
Schiff R,
Hatem C,
Kurtzberg J,
Markert ML,
Kobayashi RH,
Kobayashi AL,
Abuchowski A:
Treatment of adenosine deaminase deficiency with polyethylene glycol-modified adenosine deaminase.
N Engl J Med
316:589,
1987[Abstract]
51.
Hershfield MS:
PEG-ADA: An alternative to haploidentical bone marrow transplantation and an adjunct to gene therapy for adenosine deaminase deficiency.
Hum Mut
5:107,
1995[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
52. Hershfield MS: PEG-ADA replacement therapy for adenosine deaminase deficiency: An update after 8.5 years. Clin Immunol Immunopathol 76:S228, 1995 (suppl)
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 1997 by American Society of Hematology Online ISSN: 1528-0020 | |||||||||