1. Introduction
Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a rare inherited primary immunodeficiency, previously described as a “Fatal Granulomatous disease of childhood” owing to the early death of children with this condition [
1]. A schematic representation of the neutrophil effector functions required to achieve an adequate primary immune defense is displayed in
Figure 1 [
2]. Neutrophils develop in the bone marrow; band neutrophils are released into circulation and subsequently travel to tissues and organs to fight infections using various mechanisms, including phagocytosis, production of reactive oxygen species, and release of antimicrobial peptides, to destroy pathogens [
2].
CGD is caused by the impaired phagocytic function of the innate immune system cells owing to mutations in genes encoding the five subunits of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADPH) oxidase enzyme complex[
3,
4,
5,
6]. The normal respiratory burst process is critical in killing pathogens, manifesting as CGD. CGD’s inability to produce reactive oxygen species leads to pathognomonic systemic granuloma formation, increased susceptibility to recurrent and severe opportunistic bacterial and fungal infections, unrestrained inflammation, and autoimmunity. Since the condition was first described, there have been several improvements in treatment, such as antibacterial, antifungal, immunomodulatory, and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, which extended the life expectancy of patients [
7].
The severity of the phenotypes can vary depending on the mode of genotype inheritance, which is most commonly the X-linked type, followed by the autosomal recessive type [
8]. The functional NADPH oxidase complex comprises five subunits: two are localised in the cell membrane during the resting phase, and three are localised in the cytoplasm. The two membrane-bound subunits are gp91
phox and p22
phox (
Figure 2). These proteins form a heterodimeric complex (cytochrome b558). The cell membrane’s contact with a pathogen activates the protein complex, and three cytoplasmic subunits (p47
phox, p67
phox, and p40
phox) form a heterotrimer translocating to cytochrome b558 [
3].
According to data from the United States and European nations, approximately 65 % of patients with CGD have a molecular defect in
CYBB (most are hemizygous males). Autosomal recessive CGD accounts for approximately 30 % of all CGD cases. Molecular defects in any of these five genes (
CYBB for gp91
phox (located on the X chromosome),
CYBA for p22
phox,
NCF1 for p47
phox,
NCF2 for p67
phox, and
NCF4 for p40
phox) can occur in 90 % of patients with CGD. They harbour mutations in the CYBB (gp91
phox) or NCF1 (p47
phox) genes. Mutations in either the membrane or cytosolic domain disrupt the respiratory burst in phagocytes[
9], as displayed in
Figure 3. The clinical characteristics and rigour of the disease, as well as patient survival, depend significantly on the gene, type, and position of the mutation [
3].
It was demonstrated for the first time that EROS (CYBC1/C17ORF62) regulates abundance of the gp91phox-p22phox heterodimer of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase in human cells. EROS mutations are a novel cause of chronic granulomatous disease[
5]. Encoding the p40phox subunit of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase, have been described in only 1 patient. However, a report on 24 p40phox-CGD patients from families in 8 countries exist. These individuals display 8 different in-frame or out-of-frame mutations of NCF4, which are homozygous almost in the totality of the families [
10].
Patients usually present with fever, malaise, or weight loss. Perirectal abscesses are also typical in patients with CGD and can persist for years despite aggressive antimicrobial treatments and intense local care. Not all pathogens cause CGD outcomes of overt pyogenic infections, as stalemates may materialise between the microorganism and the patient’s leukocytes. In these circumstances, chronic inflammatory cell responses consisting of activated lymphocytes and histiocytes evolve and arrange to form granulomas, one of the hallmarks of CGD, provoking diverse clinical manifestations of obstruction such as delayed gastric emptying, antral narrowing of the stomach, dysphagia, emesis, weight loss, biliary tract or gastrointestinal obstruction[
11].
Pediatric CGD is relatively rare; this genetic condition, which has variable ethnic associations, occurs in 1 out of every 200,000–250,000 births in the United States and is often diagnosed in the first three years of life[
7,
12,
13]. In most countries, the incidence of this condition is hindered by consanguinity, and the prevalence rates of autosomal recessive genotypes differ for the same reason[
12,
14,
15,
16,
17]. A large cohort study suggested that North African/Arab and Turkish immigrants in Europe have a high prevalence of autosomal recessive CGD, reflecting the increased prevalence of consanguineous marriage in these populations[
18]. Approximately 1.49 per every 10,000 live births in the Israeli Arab population and 1.05 in the Israeli Jewish population have CGD, primarily associated with an autosomal recessive inheritance, displaying increased morbidity[
17]. Late presentation of CGD has been reported[
19]
4. CGD-related infectious diseases
Notably, severe recurrent bacterial and fungal infections usually present early in childhood (<5 years of age) in most patients with CGD. This is attributed to severe respiratory burst defects and the lack of ROS production. However, symptoms are delayed until adolescence and adulthood owing to the degree of residual NADPH oxidase activity[
25]. In patients with CGD, osteomyelitis occurs in males aged 4–20 years. X-linked inheritance has been reported in nine patients with osteomyelitis caused by
A. nidulans. Conversely, among three patients with
A. fumigatus infection, osteomyelitis was associated with X-linked gp91
phox in two patients and the autosomal recessive form of p67
phox in one[
26].
CGD patients are susceptible to a subset of catalase-positive organisms (CPO) because CPO degrades host-produced hydrogen peroxide before its conversion to hypochlorous acid by myeloperoxidase[
7]. These CPOs include bacteria such as
Pseudomonas spp.,
Staphylococcus aureus,
Nocardia,
Burkholderia cepacia, and
Enterobacteriaceae such as
Salmonella spp.,
Klebsiella spp., and
Serratia spp.[
13,
18,
20]. Mycobacterial infections caused by Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG; in endemic countries that routinely administer vaccines) and
Mycobacterium tuberculosis have been reported in Israel, Turkey, Iran, China, and Latin America. However, these patients present with a more localised disease[
17,
25,
27,
28,
29].
The most frequent fungal infection is invasive aspergillosis caused by
Aspergillus fumigatus, followed by
Aspergillus nidulans and less common
Aspergillus terreus, which has been isolated from bronchoalveolar lavage of patients with CGD [
13,
26,
30]. Other reported species include
Aspergillus niger and
Aspergillus tanneri [
31,
32]. Fungal infections, particularly those caused by
Aspergillus spp., are significant determinants of morbidity and the most common cause of mortality in patients with CGD[
13,
17]. The most common sites of infection are the lungs, followed by the skin, lymph nodes, liver, and gastrointestinal tract. Pneumonia is the most common pulmonary disease reported in patients with CGD (X-linked or autosomal recessive CGD), caused primarily by
Aspergillus spp. and
Staphylococcus aureus [
33]. Mulch pneumonitis is a medical emergency and should be considered in all cases of unexplained pneumonitis, particularly in patients with acute onset and hypoxia. These patients should be treated with high-dose corticosteroids and antifungal and antibacterial agents [
34,
35,
36]. Lung abscesses are relatively less common but potentially severe [
13,
18,
20,
25].
Subcutaneous abscesses are the most common, frequently located in the perianal region. They are typically caused by
S. aureus but can also be caused by Serratia
spp.,
Aspergillus spp., and
Klebsiella spp. [
13,
18,
20,
25]. Cellulitis was also reported by Winkelstein et al. (2000), although it is relatively rare [
20]. Suppurative or necrotising lymphadenitis is common in patients with CGD. Individuals with autosomal recessive forms of CGD have a lower probability of suppurative lymphadenitis than those with the X-linked form, suggesting that residual oxidase, which is more frequent in patients with the autosomal recessive disease, might enhance protection against this complication [
26]. Suppurative lymphadenitis can also result from region-specific medical practices. Patients with CGD are predisposed to lymphadenitis after receiving BCG vaccination; however, their disease is rarely disseminated, as mentioned previously. Frequent and chronic infections have consequences; patients with CGD reportedly present with a failure to improve owing to the long-term use of treatments [
37].
Liver abscesses are a frequent complication in patients with CGD and can cause significant morbidity. However, the signs and symptoms of this complication are variable and nonspecific, with the most common being fever, malaise, weight loss, abdominal tenderness, and elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate [
38]. In cases with liver abscesses, the predominant organism isolated was
Staphylococcus aureus. Liver involvement in patients with CGD is a notable concern because splenomegaly, nodular regenerative hyperplasia, noncirrhotic portal hypertension, and portal venopathy can occur [
39]. Splenomegaly can subsequently cause thrombocytopenia, which has been reported to be a poor prognostic indicator in patients with CGD [
40].
The gastrointestinal tract symptoms in patients with CGD are generally nonspecific and range from mild to debilitating symptoms, such as abdominal pain, bloody diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, malabsorption, and weight loss [
41]. The rate of GI involvement is much higher in the X-linked than in the autosomal recessive form, as reported in an extensive survey of patients with CGD conducted by Marciano et al. [
42]. GI involvement, particularly inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), could be the first sign of undiagnosed CGD [
22].
Patients with CGD tend to have an abnormally excessive inflammatory response characterised by granuloma formation. These non-caseating granulomas tend to affect the hollow viscera, most notably the stomach, colon, and bladder. These granulomas are likely unrelated to infections because microorganisms are usually not identified, and patients respond rapidly to steroids or other immunomodulators such as cyclosporine [
43,
44,
45]. An interested data is that
children with CGD had predominantly mild infection with COVID-19 among a cohort of 101 CGD patients [
46]
In a multicenter collaborative study of CGD in India, where were investigated 236 patients, X-linked and AR-CGD was seen in 77 and 97, respectively. Common infections documented include pneumonia (71.6%), skin and subcutaneous abscess (23.7%), osteomyelitis (8.6%), lung abscess (2.9%), meningoencephalitis (2.5%), and splenic abscess (1.7%). Mycobacterial infection was seen 18.6 % [
47].
5. Differential Diagnosis of CGD
Certain clinical disorders, notably those with abnormal enzymatic functions with clinical and similar laboratory characteristics, can be misdiagnosed as CGD. Some of these disorders are detailed below:
(i). Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency is an X-linked inherited disorder wherein leukocyte defect results from the deficient generation of NADPH, required as a reducing equivalent for oxidase. This deficiency reduces hexose monophosphate shunt activity and hydrogen peroxide production in leukocytes. Symptoms of acute haemolysis associated with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency include anaemia, fatigue, jaundice, back or abdominal pain, and haemoglobinuria. The organisms responsible for the infection include
S. aureus,
S. epidermidis, Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas, E. coli, and
Aspergillus. Laboratory diagnosis is based on the presence of deficient leukocyte glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The treatment and prognosis are similar to those of CGD. Administration of rasburicase, dapsone, primaquine, and pegloticase should not be administered until a diagnostic test is performed [
48].
(ii). Myeloperoxidase deficiency: Myeloperoxidase is an enzyme necessary for the normal intracellular killing of certain organisms such as
Candida and
S. aureus. The leukocytes of these patients exhibited regular oxygen consumption and superoxide and hydrogen peroxide production. This deficiency is characterised by the delayed intracellular killing of organisms and decreased chemiluminescence of the leukocytes. Diagnosis is based on peroxidase staining of peripheral blood, and appropriate administration of antibiotics can aid in its therapy [
8].
(iii). Chediak–Higashi Syndrome (CHS): The diagnosis of CHS is based on the examination of peripheral blood and bone marrow smears for characteristic cytoplasmic giant granules in neutrophils, eosinophils, and other granulocytes. The diagnosis can be confirmed by genetic testing for mutations in CHS1/LYST. Abnormalities include elevated Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) antibody titres, the abnormal intracellular killing of microorganisms such as streptococci and pneumococci, and microorganisms found in CGD. Abnormal microtubule function, lysosomal enzyme levels, and protease deficiency have been described in granulocytes. Most patients die during childhood; however, survivors in their second and third decades have also been identified. We lack definitive treatment besides specific antibiotic therapies against causative organisms [
49].
(iv). Job’s syndrome: This was initially described as a disorder of recurrent cold staphylococcal abscesses of the skin, lymph nodes, or subcutaneous tissues. Other clinical features include eczematoid skin lesions, otitis media, and chronic nasal discharge. Additional reports indicated that this disorder might be a variant of CGD. However, most patients do not undergo abnormal immunological test results.
S. aureus, Candida spp, H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae, and group A
Streptococci cause infections associated with Job’s syndrome. The symptoms of Job’s syndrome are similar to those of hyperimmunoglobulin E (hyper-Ig-E) syndrome (elevated immunoglobulin IgE, defective chemotaxis, eczema, and recurrent infections). These may be the same disorder, and appropriate antibiotic therapy is used [
50].