Immunopathology & Immunotherapy

Chronic granulomatous disease associated with common variable immunodeficiency (GD-CVID), although well documented, is rare. Granulomatous lesions can affect several organs and are histologically indistinguishable from sarcoidosis.

Case 1: A 39-year-old male patient with CVID, asymptomatic although with thrombocytopenia and mediastinal-hilar adenopathies. GD-CVID was diagnosed by bone marrow biopsy. Progressive clinical and radiological improvement was obtained with corticotherapy.

Case 2: A 38-year-old male patient with CVID, suffered from asthenia, anorexia, myalgia, lower limbs edemas, and dry cough. He had mediastinal and bilateral hilar adenopathies within which biopsy revealed non-necrotizing granulomatous infiltrate. A spontaneous resolution was detected after 9 months of evolution.

GD-CVID is rare and can mimetize other pathologies, namely, sarcoidosis; it should therefore be publicized and discussed so that it becomes a general clinical knowledge.

Am J Hum Genet. 2013 Nov 7;93(5):812-24. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.09.009. Epub 2013 Oct 17.Germline Mutations in NFKB2 Implicate the Noncanonical NF-κB Pathway in the Pathogenesis of Common Variable Immunodeficiency.Chen K, Coonrod EM, Kumánovics A, Franks ZF, Durtschi JD, Margraf RL, Wu W, Heikal NM, Augustine NH, Ridge PG, Hill HR, Jorde LB, Weyrich AS,Zimmerman GA, Gundlapalli AV, Bohnsack JF, Voelkerding KV. CONCLUSION:These findings describe germline mutations in NFKB2 and establish the noncanonical NF-κB signaling pathway as a genetic etiology for this primary immunodeficiency syndrome.

About half of all subjects with common variable immune deficiency (CVID) are afflicted with inflammatory complications including hematologic autoimmunity, granulomatous infiltrations, interstitial lung disease, lymphoid hyperplasia and/or gastrointestinal inflammatory disease. The pathogenesis of these conditions is poorly understood but singly and in aggregate, these lead to significantly increased (11 fold) morbidity and mortality, not experienced by CVID subjects without these complications. To explore the dysregulated networks in these subjects, we applied whole blood transcriptional profiling to 91 CVID subjects, 47 with inflammatory conditions and 44 without, in comparison to subjects with XLA and healthy controls. As compared to other CVID subjects, males with XLA or healthy controls, the signature of CVID subjects with inflammatory complications was distinguished by a marked up-regulation of IFN responsive genes. Chronic up-regulation of IFN pathways is known to occur in autoimmune disease due to activation of TLRs and other still unclarified cytoplasmic sensors. As subjects with inflammatory complications were also more likely to be lymphopenic, have reduced B cell numbers, and a greater reduction of B, T and plasma cell networks, we suggest that more impaired adaptive immunity in these subjects may lead to chronic activation of innate IFN pathways in response to environmental antigens. The unbiased use of whole blood transcriptome analysis may provides a tool for distinguishing CVID subjects who are at risk for increased morbidity and earlier mortality. As more effective therapeutic options are developed, whole blood transcriptome analyses could also provide an efficient means of monitoring the effects of treatment of the inflammatory phenotype.