α Heavy chain disease αmRNA contain nucleotide sequences of unknown origins

Abstract

Human alpha heavy chain disease is characterized by the production of abnormally short alpha IgH chains. In previously published cases it has been found that the malignant cells produce abnormal alpha mRNA, lacking VH and CH1 sequences and composed of a leader sequence peptide, sequences of variable length (69 to 84 bp) and of unknown origin, followed by normal CH2 and CH3 sequences. In this study we established the nucleotide sequence of alpha mRNA for six cases of alpha heavy chain disease. We observed that all six alpha mRNA lack the VH and CH1 sequences as do those previously described. They also contain in-frame inserts of unknown origin between the leader peptide and the normal CH2 and CH3 coding sequences. These inserts are of variable length (42 to 105 bp) and they are unrelated. These results suggest the existence of a common mechanism defect leading to deletions/insertions in alpha heavy chain disease rather than a specific interaction between alpha 1 IgH gene with a unique defined molecular species.