Here, we report a novel α chain hemoglobin (Hb) variant found during routine thalassemia screening. This Hb variant can be detected by capillary electrophoresis (CE) but cannot be recognized by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Sanger sequencing revealed a heterozygous missense substitution at nucleotide 373 on the HBA2 gene, which results in the replacement of serine by threonine at codon 124 [α124(H7)Ser→Thr (TCC>ACC), HBA2: c.373T>A]. It is the first report of this variant, named Hb Huadu for the birthplace of the proband. In addition, the proband coinherited the heterozygous codons 41/42 (-TTCT) (HBB: c126_129delCTTT) on the β-globin gene.
Keywords: Capillary electrophoresis (CE); Hb Huadu; high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); variant.