Severe disseminated mycobacterial infection in a boy with a novel mutation leading to IFN-gamma R2 deficiency

Abstract

Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial diseases (MSMD) is a rare syndrome characterized by predisposition to severe, sometimes lethal, disease caused by otherwise poorly virulent mycobacteria. We report here a boy with a recurrent mycobacterial infection from the age of five months. Immunological analyses revealed an inability to respond to IFN-gamma, subsequent genetic analyses revealed a novel homozygous mutation, r.679G > A in the IFNGR2 gene, resulting in a G227R substitution, that caused IFN-gamma R2 deficiency. This is only the 8th mutation in IFN-gamma R2 known so far. The boy eventually died of hepatic coma due to liver failure at the age of five.