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CASE REPORT article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Primary Immunodeficiencies
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1478411
This article is part of the Research Topic Community Series in Primary Immunodeficiencies Worldwide: Volume II View all 9 articles

Perspectives in newborn screening for SCID in Japan. Case report: Newborn screening identified X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency with a novel IL2RG variant

Provisionally accepted
Shiro Beppu Shiro Beppu 1Takuro Nishikawa Takuro Nishikawa 1*Dan Tomomasa Dan Tomomasa 2Atsushi Hijikata Atsushi Hijikata 3Hiroshi Kasabata Hiroshi Kasabata 4Hideyuki Terazono Hideyuki Terazono 1Kazuro Ikawa Kazuro Ikawa 5Tatsuro Nakamura Tatsuro Nakamura 1Shogo Horikawa Shogo Horikawa 1Jun Nagahama Jun Nagahama 1Aki Nakamura Aki Nakamura 1Takanari Abematsu Takanari Abematsu 1Shunsuke Nakagawa Shunsuke Nakagawa 1Kaoru Oketani Kaoru Oketani 6Hirokazu Kanegane Hirokazu Kanegane 2*Yasuhiro Okamoto Yasuhiro Okamoto 1
  • 1 Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan
  • 2 Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan
  • 3 Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Hachioji, Tōkyō, Japan
  • 4 Kagoshima University Hospital, Kagoshima, Kagoshima, Japan
  • 5 Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
  • 6 Kagoshima Prefectural Comprehensive Health Centre, Kagoshima, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Newborn screening (NBS) for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) has improved the prognosis of SCID. In Japan, NBS testing (measurement of the T-cell receptor excision circles (TREC) and kappa-deleting recombination excision circles (KREC)) was launched in 2017 and has expanded nationwide in recent years. In this study, we report a Japanese patient with Xlinked SCID with a novel IL2RG variant identified through NBS. The patient underwent cord blood transplantation (CBT). Case: The patient had no siblings or family history of inborn errors of immunity. He was born at 38 weeks of gestation and weighed 3,072 g. His NBS results revealed TREC 0 copies/10 5 cells (normal value: >565 copies/10 5 cells), which was considered suggestive of SCID. The patient was referred to our hospital. Although his lymphocyte count was 1,402/μL, naïve T cells and CD56 + natural killer (NK) cells were decreased to 0% and 0.05% of the total lymphocytes, respectively. Flow cytometric measurement testing revealed a decrease in γc protein expression in the B lymphocytes and NK lymphocytes. We identified a hemizygous novel missense variant (c.256A>C, p.Thr86Pro) of IL2RG. Both in silico and structural analyses revealed that this variant is likely pathogenic. At 3 months of age, he underwent CBT from a human leukocyte antigenfull-matched unrelated donor. The conditioning regimen included fludarabine (180 mg/m 2 ) and targeted busulfan (35 mg×h/L). The patient achieved high-level donor chimerism and immune reconstitution, including B-cell function, at 13 months. Conclusion. Using NBS, the patient was diagnosed as having X-linked SCID with a novel missense variant of IL2RG. Early diagnosis using NBS tests enables safe hematopoietic stem cell transplantation without complications such as infection. We also found that even SCID with novel variants can be accurately diagnosed using the NBS program. In Japan, the test uptake rate is approximately 80% due to the high number of selffunded screening tests, and it is hoped that the uptake rate will increase in the future.

    Keywords: Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, IL2RG gene, Newborn screening, Structural Analysis, X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency

    Received: 09 Aug 2024; Accepted: 04 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Beppu, Nishikawa, Tomomasa, Hijikata, Kasabata, Terazono, Ikawa, Nakamura, Horikawa, Nagahama, Nakamura, Abematsu, Nakagawa, Oketani, Kanegane and Okamoto. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Takuro Nishikawa, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan
    Hirokazu Kanegane, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, 113-8510, Japan

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