Compound heterozygous variants in OTULIN are associated with fulminant atypical late-onset ORAS

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Julia Zinngrebe - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Barbara Moepps - , Ulm University (Author)
  • Thomas Monecke - , Ulm University (Author)
  • Peter Gierschik - , Ulm University (Author)
  • Ferdinand Schlichtig - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Thomas F E Barth - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Gudrun Strauß - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Elena Boldrin - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Carsten Posovszky - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Ansgar Schulz - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Ortraud Beringer - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Eva Rieser - , German Sport University Cologne (Author)
  • Eva-Maria Jacobsen - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Myriam Ricarda Lorenz - , Ulm University (Author)
  • Klaus Schwarz - , Ulm University (Author)
  • Ulrich Pannicke - , Ulm University (Author)
  • Henning Walczak - , German Sport University Cologne (Author)
  • Dierk Niessing - , Ulm University (Author)
  • Catharina Schuetz - , Department of Paediatrics, Pediatric Pneumology and Immunology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (Author)
  • Pamela Fischer-Posovszky - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)
  • Klaus-Michael Debatin - , Ulm University Medical Center (Author)

Abstract

Autoinflammatory diseases are a heterogenous group of disorders defined by fever and systemic inflammation suggesting involvement of genes regulating innate immune responses. Patients with homozygous loss-of-function variants in the OTU-deubiquitinase OTULIN suffer from neonatal-onset OTULIN-related autoinflammatory syndrome (ORAS) characterized by fever, panniculitis, diarrhea, and arthritis. Here, we describe an atypical form of ORAS with distinct clinical manifestation of the disease caused by two new compound heterozygous variants (c.258G>A (p.M86I)/c.500G>C (p.W167S)) in the OTULIN gene in a 7-year-old affected by a life-threatening autoinflammatory episode with sterile abscess formation. On the molecular level, we find binding of OTULIN to linear ubiquitin to be compromised by both variants; however, protein stability and catalytic activity is most affected by OTULIN variant p.W167S. These molecular changes together lead to increased levels of linear ubiquitin linkages in patient-derived cells triggering the disease. Our data indicate that the spectrum of ORAS patients is more diverse than previously thought and, thus, supposedly asymptomatic individuals might also be affected. Based on our results, we propose to subdivide the ORAS into classical and atypical entities.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)e14901
JournalEMBO molecular medicine
Volume14
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - 7 Mar 2022
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMedCentral PMC8899767
Scopus 85124762470
ORCID /0009-0003-6519-0482/work/148606610

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Child, Endopeptidases/genetics, Hereditary Autoinflammatory Diseases/genetics, Humans, Infant, Newborn, Inflammation/genetics, Ubiquitin/metabolism