Title: Association of HLA-DQB1 alleles with risk of follicular lymphoma.

Authors: Akers, Nicholas K; Curry, John D; Conde, Lucia; Bracci, Paige M; Smith, Martyn T; Skibola, Christine F

Published In Leuk Lymphoma, (2011 Jan)

Abstract: In a recent genome-wide association study of follicular lymphoma (FL), we identified novel risk alleles on chromosome 6p21.33 that appeared to be part of an extended haplotype including HLA-DRB1*0101, DQA1*0101, and DQB1*0501. To follow up on these findings, we obtained 2-4 digit HLA-DQB1 allelotypes on a subset of 265 cases of FL and 757 controls using a novel assay that applies multiplexed ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA). We confirmed a positive association between FL and the HLA-DQB1*05 allele group (OR = 1.70, 95% CI 1.28-2.27; adjusted p-value = 0.013) and also identified an allele group inversely associated with FL risk, HLA-DQB1*06 (OR = 0.51, 95% CI 0.38-0.69; adjusted p-value = 4.46 × 10(-5)). Although these findings require verification, the role of HLA class II proteins in B-cell survival and proliferation makes this a biologically plausible association.

PubMed ID: 21133715

MeSH Terms: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alleles; Case-Control Studies; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6/genetics*; Female; HLA-DR Antigens/genetics*; HLA-DRB1 Chains; Humans; Lymphoma, Follicular/epidemiology; Lymphoma, Follicular/genetics*; Lymphoma, Follicular/pathology; Male; Middle Aged; Prognosis; Risk Factors; San Francisco/epidemiology; Survival Rate; Young Adult