Ocular pterygium-digital keloid dysplasia (OPDKD) is a rare hereditary disease characterized by corneal ingrowth of vascularized conjunctival tissue early in life. Later, patients develop keloids on fingers and toes but are otherwise healthy. In a recently described family with OPDKD, we report the presence of a de novo c.770C > T, p.(Thr257Ile) variant in PELI2 in the affected individual. PELI2 encodes for the E3 ubiquitin ligase Pellino-2. In transgenic U87MG cells overexpressing Pellino-2 with the p.(Thr257Ile) amino acid substitution, constitutive activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome was observed. However, the Thr257Ile variant did not affect Pellino-2 intracellular localization, its binding to known interaction partners, nor its stability. Our findings indicate that constitutive autoactivation of the NLRP3 inflammasome contributes to the development of PELI2-associated OPDKD.
Keywords: NLRP3 inflammasome; OPDKD; PELI2; corneal vascularization; keloids; pterygium.
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