A novel termination codon mutation of the WAS gene in a Thai family with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome.

Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is an X-linked recessive disorder characterized by microthrombocytopenia, eczema, immunodeficiency, and susceptibility to lymphoid malignancy. Loss-of-function mutations in WAS gene have been identified to cause disorders with platelet defects including WAS and X-linked thrombocytopenia. Mutations anticipated to yield truncated or no protein have been associated with the more severe presentations of WAS. Activating mutations in WAS gene result in an entirely different phenotype, an X-linked severe congenital neutropenia. We describe a Thai family with classic WAS. The proband, a one-year-old boy presented with recurrent mucous bloody diarrhea, recurrent otitis media, chronic eczema, thrombocytopenia, and small platelet sizes. The patient's older brother who also had persistent thrombocytopenia died at the age of seven months from severe pneumonia. Immunoblot analysis demonstrated that the proband's cells lacked WAS protein expression. Mutation analysis of the proband and his mother for the entire coding region of WAS identified a novel type of mutation, a termination codon mutation, X503R. The change is expected to result in an elongated mRNA that would code for a WASP of 581 amino acid residues instead of the normal 502 residues. Because of the absence of WASP expression, we speculate that the termination codon mutation causes reduced mRNA stability. Our findings supported that WAS mutations resulted in no protein are associated with a severe phenotype of WAS.