Lammert, CraigMcKinnon, Elizabeth J.Chalasani, NagaPhillips, Elizabeth J.2019-09-062019-09-062019-06Lammert, C., McKinnon, E. J., Chalasani, N., & Phillips, E. J. (2019). Novel HLA Class I Alleles Outside the Extended DR3 Haplotype Are Protective against Autoimmune Hepatitis. Clinical and translational gastroenterology, 10(6), e00032. doi:10.14309/ctg.0000000000000032https://hdl.handle.net/1805/20858INTRODUCTION: HLA class II allele, DRB1*03:01, is the most common genetic risk factor for autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), but other unrecognized HLA related risks exist. METHODS: We compared the HLA class I (A, B, C) and class II (DR, DQ, DP) typing between patients with well-characterized AIH and healthy controls by high resolution sequencing of the HLA region. Seventy-three patients with AIH and 87 healthy controls were included. Association between HLA alleles and AIH was considered singly and in clusters and adjusted for age, gender, and DRB1*03:01. RESULTS: DRB1*03:01 was singly associated with AIH among whites (odds ratio [OR]: 3.09, P = 0.002) and carriers of DRB1*03:01 also carried DQA*05:01 and DQB1*02:01. Significant HLA class I alleles were associated with AIH including those belonging to the A03 (OR: 0.4, P = 0.01) and B44 supertype (OR: 0.44, P = 0.03). Further refinement of HLA-A by binding pocket structure revealed that the sequence Y(F/T)AVMENV(H/Q)Y, corresponding to HLA-A alleles A*03:01-02; *31:01; *32:02, was protective for AIH (OR: 0.3, P = 0.002). A protective association also existed for alleles belonging to the HLA-B binding pocket structure Y(H/Y)TVKEISNY (OR: 0.35, P = 0.01), corresponding to HLA-B alleles: B*40:01-02; *41:02; *44:02-03; *45:01; *49:01; *50:01-02. Associations with specific class I alleles belonging to the 8.1 ancestral haplotype (HLA-A*01:01, HLA-B*08:01, HLA-C*07:01) were not significant when considered jointly with DRB1*03:01 and reported protective class I alleles. DISCUSSION: Our study identified novel supertypes and HLA-A and B peptide binding structures protective against AIH. Further risk assessment of class I molecules remains important in AIH as they are key mediators of adaptive immunity.en-USAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesDRB1*03:01Genetic risk factorsAutoimmune hepatitis (AIH)HLA allelesArticle