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Amino acid position 11 of HLA-DRβ1 is a major determinant of chromosome 6p association with ulcerative colitis

Abstract

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on chromosome 6p is an established risk locus for ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). We aimed to better define MHC association signals in UC and CD by combining data from dense single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping and from imputation of classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types, their constituent SNPs and corresponding amino acids in 562 UC, 611 CD and 1428 control subjects. Univariate and multivariate association analyses were performed, controlling for ancestry. In univariate analyses, absence of the rs9269955 C allele was strongly associated with risk for UC (P=2.67 × 10−13). rs9269955 is a SNP in the codon for amino acid position 11 of HLA-DRβ1, located in the P6 pocket of the HLA-DR antigen binding cleft. This amino acid position was also the most significantly UC-associated amino acid in omnibus tests (P=2.68 × 10−13). Multivariate modeling identified rs9269955-C and 13 other variants in best predicting UC vs control status. In contrast, there was only suggestive association evidence between the MHC and CD. Taken together, these data demonstrate that variation at HLA-DRβ1, amino acid 11 in the P6 pocket of the HLA-DR complex antigen binding cleft is a major determinant of chromosome 6p association with UC.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Leonard Baidoo, MD and David Binion, MD for providing phenotypic information for some of the study subjects, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System for Illumina Genotyping BeadChip processing, and the University of Pittsburgh Genomics and Proteomics Core Laboratories for HLA-DRB1 sequencing technical assistance. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants DK068112 (J-PA), AG030653 (MIK), MH057881 (BD and KR), DK062420 (RHD) and DK076025 (RHD); a Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Senior Research Award (RHD); Department of Defense Grant W81XWH-07-1-0619 (MT); and funds generously provided by Kenneth and Jennifer Rainin, Gerald and Nancy Goldberg, and Victor and Ellen Cohn.

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Correspondence to R H Duerr.

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Achkar, JP., Klei, L., Bakker, P. et al. Amino acid position 11 of HLA-DRβ1 is a major determinant of chromosome 6p association with ulcerative colitis. Genes Immun 13, 245–252 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/gene.2011.79

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