Chimpanzee PRF1 ELISA Kit

Up to 60% of cases of the autosomal recessive immunodeficiency hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) are associated with mutations in the perforin (PRF1) gene. In this study, we expressed wild-type and mutated perforin in rat basophil leukemia cells to study the effect on lytic function of the substitutions A91V and N252S (commonly considered to be neutral polymorphisms) and 22 perforin missense substitutions first identified in HLH patients. Surprisingly, we found that A91V perforin was expressed at reduced levels compared with wild-type perforin, resulting in partial loss of lytic capacity. In contrast, expression and function of N252S-substituted perforin were normal. Most HLH-associated mutations resulted in protein degradation (probably due to misfolding) and complete loss of perforin activity, the exception being R232H, which retained approximately 30% wild-type activity. Several other mutated proteins (H222Q, C73R, F157V, and D313V) had no detectable lytic activity but were expressed at normal levels, suggesting that their functional defect might map downstream at the level of the target cell membrane. One further perforin substitution identified in an HLH patient (V183G) was normally expressed and displayed normal lysis. This report represents the first systematic functional analysis of HLH-associated missense mutations and the 2 most common perforin polymorphisms. (c) 2005 by The American Society of Hematology.

We report the first Far Eastern case of a Korean child with familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) caused by a novel syntaxin 11 (STX11) mutation. A 33-month-old boy born to non-consanguineous Korean parents was admitted for intermittent fever lasting one week, pancytopenia, hepatosplenomegaly, and HLH in the bone marrow. Under the impression of HLH, genetic study revealed a novel homozygous missense mutation of STX11: c.650T>C, p.Leu217Pro. Although no large deletion or allele drop was identified, genotype analysis demonstrated that the homozygous c.650T>C may have resulted from the duplication of a maternal (unimaternal) chromosomal region and concurrent loss of the other paternal allele, likely caused by meiotic errors such as two crossover events. A cumulative study of such novel mutations and their effects on specific protein interactions may deepen the understanding of how abnormal STX1 expression results in deficient cytotoxic function.