Anti‐LGI1 encephalitis is associated with unique HLA subtypes

• Published in: Annals of neurology Vol. 81; no. 2; pp. 183 - 192
• Main Authors: Kim, Tae‐Joon, Lee, Soon‐Tae, Moon, Jangsup, Sunwoo, Jun‐Sang, Byun, Jung‐Ick, Lim, Jung‐Ah, Shin, Yong‐Won, Jun, Jin‐Sun, Lee, Han Sang, Lee, Woo‐Jin, Yang, Ah Reaum, Choi, Yunhee, Park, Kyung‐Il, Jung, Keun‐Hwa, Jung, Ki‐Young, Kim, Manho, Lee, Sang Kun, Chu, Kon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.02.2017
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis - genetics; Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis - immunology; Autoantibodies; Brain tumors; Computational neuroscience; Docking; Drb1 protein; Encephalitis; Encephalitis - genetics; Encephalitis - immunology; Epilepsy; Female; Genotypes; Glioma; Glutamic acid receptors; Haplotypes; Histocompatibility antigen HLA; HLA-DQ beta-Chains - genetics; HLA-DRB1 Chains - genetics; Humans; Immunopathogenesis; Leucine; Leukocytes; LGI1 protein; Male; Middle Aged; N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid receptors; Patients; Proteins - immunology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0364-5134; 1531-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/ana.24860

Objective Autoimmune encephalitis (AE), represented by anti–leucine‐rich glioma‐inactivated 1 (anti‐LGI1) and anti–N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptor (anti‐NMDAR) encephalitis, has increasing clinical significance based on recent discoveries of neuronal autoantibodies. However, its immunopathogenesis is not fully understood. Here, we investigated whether AE is associated with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) subtypes. Methods We compared the HLA genotypes of 11 anti‐LGI1 and 17 anti‐NMDAR encephalitis patients to the control groups, which consisted of 210 epilepsy patients and 485 healthy Koreans. Results Anti‐LGI1 encephalitis was associated with the DRB1*07:01–DQB1*02:02 haplotype (10 patients; 91%) in HLA class II genes, as well as with B*44:03 (8 patients; 73%) and C*07:06 (7 patients; 64%) in the HLA class I region. The prevalence of these alleles in anti‐LGI1 encephalitis was significantly higher than that in the epilepsy controls or healthy controls. By contrast, anti‐NMDAR encephalitis was not associated with HLA genotypes. Additional analysis using HLA‐peptide binding prediction algorithms and computational docking underpinned the close relationship. Interpretation This finding suggests that most anti‐LGI1 encephalitis develops in a population with specific HLA subtypes, providing insight into a novel disease mechanism. Ann Neurol 2017;81:183–192