Genome-wide transcriptome analysis in PBMCs of HIES patient A.II.1 compared to healthy sibling A.II.5

Signal-transducer-and-activator-of-transcription-3 (STAT3) is a central regulator of immune homeostasis. STAT3 levels are strictly controlled and STAT3 impairment contributes to several diseases including the monogenic autosomal-dominant hyper-IgE syndrome (AD-HIES). We investigated patients of four consanguineous families with an autosomal-recessive disorder resembling the phenotype of AD-HIES, with symptoms of immunodeficiency, recurrent infections, skeletal abnormalities, and elevated IgE. Patients presented with reduced STAT3 expression and diminished Th17 cell numbers, in absence of STAT3 mutations. We identified homozygous nonsense mutations in ZNF341, encoding a zinc-finger transcription factor. Wildtype-ZNF341 bound to and activated the STAT3 promoter, whereas the mutant variants showed impaired transcriptional activation, partly due to nuclear translocation failure. In summary, nonsense mutations in ZNF341 account for the STAT3-like phenotype in four autosomal-recessive kindreds. Thus, ZNF341 is a previously unrecognized regulator of immune homeostasis.

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Frey-Jakobs S, Hartberger JM, Fliegauf M, Bossen C, Wehmeyer ML, Neubauer JC, Bulashevska A, Proietti M, Fröbel P, Nöltner C, Yang L, Rojas-Restrepo J, Langer N, Winzer S, Engelhardt KR, Glocker C, Pfeifer D, Klein A, Schäffer AA, Lagovsky I, Lachover-Roth I, Béziat V, Puel A, Casanova JL, Fleckenstein B, Weidinger S, Kilic SS, Garty BZ, Etzioni A, Grimbacher B