HLA and leprosy in Koreans

Abstract

HLA antigens in 157 unrelated Koreans with leprosy have been identified and compared with 162 healthy Korean controls. The patient group consisted of 124 with lepromatous leprosy and 33 with tuberculoid leprosy. Although no significant differences were detected between the two patient groups, several antigens were found to be increased in the combined patient group compared to healthy controls. Two Class I antigens were increased: HLA-All (22% vs 12%) and Aw33 (27% vs 14%). Four Class I1 antigens were increased: HLA-DR1 (16% vs 7%), DR2 (39% vs 21%). DRw9 (14% vs 6%) and DQwl (74% vs 55%). HLA-DR4 (28% vs a%), DRw53 (46% vs 69%) and DQw3 (500/, vs 75%) in contrast were significantly decreased in patients. Interaction of DRI, DR2, DRw9 and DQwl as risk factors was analyzed. HLA-DR2 appeared to be the strongest risk factor. N o evidence for synergy between DRI. DR2 and DRw9 was detected. DQwl was not significantly increased in patients in the absence of DRl and DR2, and thus it was not apparent in this study that DQwl was an independent risk factor.

Association of HLA-DRB1*0405 with resistance to multibacillary leprosy in Taiwanese

“…Table 4 summarizes results obtained from other HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 disease association studies in other populations [6 -15,25,26]. Although there is some discordance between studies, the same protective association with HLA-DRB1‫/5040ء‬DR4 and leprosy was also observed in three studies [7,8,14].…”

“…Furthermore Joko et al previously reported that the presence of HLA-DRB1‫5040ء‬ was significantly decreased in Japanese leprosy patients (OR ϭ 0.25) and that the multibacillary group had less DRB1‫5040ء‬ than paucibacillary group [7]. In addition, Kim et al and Vanderborght et al also reported that DR4/DRB1‫40ء‬ was associated with resistance to M. leprae infection in Korean, Vietnamese, and Brazilian populations [8,14] (Table 4). Although association analyses in these studies were obtained using HLA-DR serology (i.e., using two-digit resolution typing), our study, using re-assignation NS, not significant.…”

“…Whether DRB1‫5040ء‬ molecules are more effective than other DR molecules in presenting M. leprae antigens and eliciting stronger cellular immune response remains to be studied further. Several epidemiologic studies reported significant associations of HLA-DR2 (DRB1‫)51ء‬ with susceptibility to leprosy in Turkish, Thai, Korean, and Brazilian populations [6,8,12,14,15], with HLA-DRB1‫1051ء‬ (OR ϭ 4.6) in Japan [7], with DRB1‫1051ء‬ (OR ϭ 10.9) and with DRB1‫2051ء‬ (OR ϭ3.0) in India [10,11] (Table 4). On the contrary, our results only showed a very weak association with any subset of HLA-DR2 (DRB1‫,1051ء‬ OR ϭ 2.0, p ϭ 0.073; DRB1‫,51ء‬ OR ϭ 1.73, p ϭ 0.079; DR2 (combined DRB1‫,1051ء‬ DRB1‫2051ء‬ and DRB1‫,)2061ء‬ OR ϭ 1.52, p ϭ 0.09).…”

Major histocompatibility complex and its importance towards controlling infection

“…[143][144][145][146][147] DRB1*1501 has been associated with LL 148,149 whereas DRB1*1502 has been associated with TT. 150 DQ alleles, especially DQw1 have been shown to be associated with TT in India, 148,123 Korea, 141 Thailand, 149 and Japan. 151 Importantly, HLA DQ1 is in strong linkage disequilibrium with HLA-DR2 in most populations and it has usually been difficult to discern whether the primary association is with the DR or the DQ variant.…”

“…136 Several studies comparing HLA Class I gene frequencies in leprosy cases and controls have found associations either with the polar forms of leprosy, or with leprosy itself, however these suggested associations have not been replicated as they are limited and inconsistent. 130,[137][138][139][140][141][142] The association between DR and DQ alleles and different clinical subtypes of leprosy are documented. Several studies reported an association of the HLA-DR2 alleles; HLA -DRB1*15, *16, *10 and *12 with susceptibility or resistance to leprosy in Brazilian, Vietnamese, South Indian, Indonesian, Thai and Argentine populations.…”