Introduction: MYH9-related disease (MYH9-RD) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder caused by mutations in MYH9, which is responsible for encoding nonmuscle myosin heavy chains IIA (NMMHCIIA). MYH9-RD is clinically characterized by congenital macrothrombocytopenia, granulocyte inclusions variably associated with the risk of developing progressive sensorineural deafness, cataracts and nephropathy. Patient concerns: A 5-year-old boy had a history of a mild bleeding tendency and chronic thrombocytopenia, first identified at four months of age. No other family members were noted to have similar clinical features or hematologic disorders. Diagnoses: The boy was diagnosed with MYH9-RD. Light microscopic examination of peripheral blood films (Wright-Giemsa stain) showed marked platelet macrocytosis with giant platelets and basophilic Döhle-like inclusions in 83% of the neutrophils. Immunofluorescence analysis disclosed a type II pattern, manifested by neutrophils which contained several circle-to-oval shaped cytoplasmic NMMMHCA-positive granules. Sequencing analysis of MYH9-RD genes was carried out and revealed a novel missense mutation of c.97T>G (p.W33G) in the patient but not in his parents. Intervention: No treatment is necessary. Recognition of MYH9-RD is important to Avoiding unnecessary and potentially harmful treatments. Outcomes: The patient's condition remained stable during the follow-up. Conclusions: As a result of identifying this missense mutation in this particular case, we have added c.97T>G (p.W33G) to the broad spectrum of potential MYH9 mutations.

Certain studies have previously indicated that an association may exist between rotavirus infection and primary immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). The present retrospective study aimed to investigate whether rotavirus may cause ITP in children. Firstly, the incidence of ITP in children with or without rotavirus diarrhea was compared. A 14.58% incident rate was observed in children with rotavirus diarrhea compared with a 7.22% incident rate in children without rotavirus diarrhea. Subsequently, the clinical features of ITP children with or without rotavirus infection were compared. The results indicated that ITP children with rotavirus infection were significantly younger, showed significantly decreased mean platelet volume (MPV) levels and presented a significantly higher frequency of bleeding score of 3 against ITP children without rotavirus infection. In conclusion, these findings suggest that rotavirus serves a causative role in ITP.

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Background: Menkes disease (MD) is a rare X-linked connective tissue disorder of copper metabolism caused by pathogenic variant(s) in ATP7A gene. The aim of the present study is to determine the clinical characteristics and molecular basis of one patient with MD.Methods: One 10-month-old Chinese boy who met the clinical manifestations of MD was enrolled in this study. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was performed in the patient in order to identify the variant(s), followed by Sanger sequencing. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) from whole blood was subsequently applied to assess the effect of variant on transcription levels, and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed for further validation. In addition, X chromosome inactivation (XCI) status of the patient’s mother at the DNA level was measured by capillary electrophoresis.Results: The patient suffered from intermittent convulsions for more than 6 months, with psychomoto retardation and neurodegenerations. The patient also had curly hair, hypopigmented skin, cutis laxa, decreased muscle strength and hypotonia. MRI showed the intracranial arteries were tortuous with some “spiral” changes. The patient’s serum ceruloplasmin level was low. WGS revealed one novel hemizygous variant, c.2627-501C > T (NM_000,052.7), located in the deep intronic sequence of ATP7A gene. Sanger sequencing confirmed that the variant was inherited from his mother. RNA-seq confirmed the variant itself, and identified a pseudo-exon inserted between exons 12 and 13 in mRNA of ATP7A. The sequencing results of RT-PCR from the patient confirmed this finding, while neither of his parents detected aberrant splicing. The Capillary electrophoresis results showed that the patient’s mother had a skewed XCI.Conclusion: Our finding of the variant enlarges the variant spectrum in the ATP7A gene. This is a novel deep intronic variant which leads to the activation of a pseudo-exons in the ATP7A gene, and it demonstrates the usefulness of WGS combined with RNA-seq, in terms of revealing disease-causing variants in non-coding regions. Furthermore, the fact that the deep intronic variants cause disease by the activation of pseudo-exon inclusion indicates that in MD this might be an important mechanism.