Germline Genetic NBN Variation and Predisposition to B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Children

Biallelic mutation in the DNA-damage repair gene NBN is the genetic cause of Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome, which is associated with predisposition to lymphoid malignancies. Heterozygous carriers of germline NBN variants may also be at risk for leukemia development, although this is much less characterized. Sequencing 4,325 pediatric B-ALL patients, we systematically examined the frequency of germline NBN variants and identified 25 unique, putatively damaging NBN coding variants in 50 patients. Compared with the frequency of NBN variants in gnomAD non-cancer controls (189 unique, putatively damaging NBN coding variants in 472 of 118,479 individuals) we found significant overrepresentation in pediatric B-ALL (p=0.004, OR=1.8). Most B-ALL-risk variants were missense and cluster within the NBN N-terminal domains. Using two functional assays, we verified 14 of 25 variants with severe loss-of-function phenotypes and thus classified these as non-functional or partially functional. Finally, we found that germline NBN variant carriers, all of which were identified as heterozygous genotypes, showed similar survival outcomes relative to those with WT status. Taken together, our findings provide novel insights into the genetic predisposition to B-ALL, and the impact of NBN variants on protein function and suggest that heterozygous NBN variant carriers may safely receive B-ALL therapy.