Adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency is a systemic purine metabolic disorder that primarily affects lymphocyte development, viability, and function. The clinical phenotypic spectrum includes: Severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID), often diagnosed by age six months and usually by age 12 months; Less severe "delayed" onset combined immune deficiency (CID), usually diagnosed between age one and ten years; "Late/adult onset" CID, diagnosed in the second to fourth decades; Benign "partial ADA deficiency" (very low or absent ADA activity in erythrocytes but greater ADA activity in nucleated cells), which is compatible with normal immune function. Infants with typical early-onset ADA-deficient SCID have failure to thrive and opportunistic infections associated with marked depletion of T, B, and NK lymphocytes, and an absence of both humoral and cellular immune function. If immune function is not restored, children with ADA-deficient SCID rarely survive beyond age one to two years. Infections in delayed- and late-onset types (commonly, recurrent otitis, sinusitis, and upper respiratory) may initially be less severe than those in individuals with ADA-deficient SCID; however, by the time of diagnosis these individuals often have chronic pulmonary insufficiency and may have autoimmune phenomena (cytopenias, anti-thyroid antibodies), allergies, and elevated serum concentration of IgE. The longer the disorder goes unrecognized, the more immune function deteriorates and the more likely are chronic sequelae of recurrent infection.

Immunodeficiency-99 with hypogammaglobulinemia and autoimmune cytopenias (IMD99) is an autosomal recessive immunologic disorder characterized by the onset of recurrent sinopulmonary infections in early childhood. Laboratory studies reveal hypogammaglobulinemia with decreased memory B cells that show impaired class-switch recombination (CSR) and decreased somatic hypermutation (SHM). Due to abnormal antibody production and impaired self-tolerance, patients may develop autoimmune cytopenias, such as thrombocytopenia, or autoimmune features, such as vitiligo. There are also defects in the T-cell compartment (Kuhny et al., 2020).