Pyrin variant E148Q potentiates inflammasome activation and the effect of pathogenic mutations in cis

The p.E148Q variant in pyrin is present in different populations at a frequency of up to 29%, and has been associated with diseases, including vasculitis and FMF. The pathogenicity of p.E148Q in FMF is unclear, even when observed in cis or in trans to a single, typically recessive, pathogenic mutation. We performed functional validation to determine whether p.E148Q increases the ability of pyrin to form an active inflammasome complex in cell lines.

We interrogated the Australian Autoinflammatory Disease RegistrY (AADRY) to find candidate inheritance patterns for the p.E148Q variant in pyrin. Different pyrin variant combinations were tested in HEK293T cells stably expressing the adaptor protein apoptosis-associated speck-like (ASC), which were analysed by flow cytometry to visualize inflammasome formation, with and without stimulation by Clostridioides difficile toxin B (TcdB). Inflammasome-dependent cytokine secretion was also quantified by ELISA of supernatants from THP-1 cells transduced with lentiviral expression vectors.

In AADRY, we observed the p.E148Q allele in individuals with autoinflammatory diseases alone or in conjunction with other pyrin variants. Two FMF families harboured the allele p.E148Q-M694I in cis with dominant heritability. In vitro, p.E148Q pyrin could spontaneously potentiate inflammasome formation, with increased IL-1β and IL-18 secretion. p.E148Q in cis to classical FMF mutations provided significant potentiation of inflammasome formation.

The p.E148Q variant in pyrin potentiates inflammasome activation in vitro. In cis, this effect is additive to known pathogenic FMF mutations. In some families, this increased effect could explain why FMF segregates as an apparently dominant disease.