Back to Search Start Over

Temperature sensitivity of human perforin mutants unmasks subtotal loss of cytotoxicity, delayed FHL, and a predisposition to cancer.

Authors :
Chia J
Yeo KP
Whisstock JC
Dunstone MA
Trapani JA
Voskoboinik I
Source :
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A] 2009 Jun 16; Vol. 106 (24), pp. 9809-14. Date of Electronic Publication: 2009 Jun 01.
Publication Year :
2009

Abstract

The pore-forming protein perforin is critical for defense against many human pathogens and for preventing a catastrophic collapse of immune homeostasis, manifested in infancy as Type 2 familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHL). However, no evidence has yet linked defective perforin cytotoxicity with cancer susceptibility in humans. Here, we examined perforin function in every patient reported in the literature who lived to at least 10 years of age without developing FHL despite inheriting mutations in both of their perforin (PRF1) alleles. Our analysis showed that almost 50% of these patients developed at least 1 hematological malignancy in childhood or adolescence. The broad range of pathologies argued strongly against a common environmental or viral cause for the extraordinary cancer incidence. Functionally, what distinguished these patients was their inheritance of PRF1 alleles encoding temperature-sensitive missense mutations. By contrast, truly null missense mutations with no rescue at the permissive temperature were associated with the more common severe presentation with FHL in early infancy. Our study provides the first mechanistic evidence for a link between defective perforin-mediated cytotoxicity and cancer susceptibility in humans and establishes the paradigm that temperature sensitivity of perforin function is a predictor of FHL severity.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1091-6490
Volume :
106
Issue :
24
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
19487666
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903815106