A novel hemizygous nonsense variant in DOCK11 causes systemic inflammation and immunodeficiency

Abstract

Hemizygous germline loss-of-function variants in DOCK11, the gene encoding the dedicator of cytokinesis 11 (DOCK11) have been recently identified to cause variable immunodeficiency and immune dysregulation. Features of immune dysregulation have been reported in all so far identified male patients with damaging variants in DOCK11, commonly manifesting with autoimmune cytopenias, inflammatory bowel disease, benign lymphoproliferation and systemic inflammation. In this study, we identified a novel variant in DOCK11 (c.3754C > T, p.(Q1252*)), leading to loss of protein expression, in a patient with a history of recurrent pneumonia, bronchiectasis, infection-triggered hyperinflammation and persistent systemic inflammation. Reevaluation of all previously identified patients and the current case, reveals that variants leading to the complete loss of DOCK11 expression and consequently function rather associate with autoinflammation and recurrent pneumonias, while missense variants, primarily associate with autoantibody-related autoimmune features.