Association between human leukocyte antigen class II alleles and human papillomavirus-mediated cervical cancer in Indian women

• Published in: Human immunology Vol. 70; no. 4; pp. 222 - 229
• Main Authors: Kohaar, Indu, Hussain, Showket, Thakur, Nisha, Tiwari, Pratibha, Nasare, Vilas, Batra, Swaraj, Singh, Veena, Bhambani, Suresh, Das, Bhudev C., Sarkar, Debi P., Bharadwaj, Mausumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.04.2009
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Alleles; Allergy and Immunology; Case-Control Studies; Cervical cancer; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia - complications; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia - genetics; Chi-Square Distribution; Female; Gene Frequency; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Haplotypes; HLA-DQ Antigens - genetics; HLA-DQ beta-Chains; HLA-DR Antigens - genetics; HLA-DRB1 Chains; Human leukocyte antigen (HLA); Human papillomavirus; Humans; India; Linkage Disequilibrium; Middle Aged; Papillomavirus Infections - complications; Papillomavirus Infections - genetics; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Polymorphism; Polymorphism, Genetic; Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - complications; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - genetics; Young Adult; India; Human papillomavirus; Human leukocyte antigen (HLA); Cervical cancer; Polymorphism
• ISSN: 0198-8859; 1879-1166; 1879-1166
• DOI: 10.1016/j.humimm.2009.01.003

We investigated the association of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) II (DRB1 and DQB1) alleles with susceptibility to human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cervical precancer and cancer cases in a hospital-based case–control study in a northern Indian population. A total of 202 subjects, including 100 patients comprising 31 cervical precancer (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia [CIN] 2/3) and 69 invasive cervical cancer cases, and 102 healthy controls participated in the study. Both patients and controls were screened for HPV infection using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR-based approach. Low-resolution PCR–sequence specific priming (PCR-SSP) was used to genotype HLA II (DRB1 and DQB1). Our results demonstrate that the DRB1*15 allele/DRB1*15-DQB1*06 haplotype may have a predisposition for HPV infection ( p c < 0.05) or cervical cancer/precancer ( p c < 0.05) development, whereas the DRB1*04 allele/DRB1*04-DQB1*03 haplotype might exhibit susceptibility to cervical precancerous lesions ( p c < 0.05). The DRB1*13 allele/DRB1*13-DQB1*06 haplotype was strongly protective against risk to HPV infection ( p c < 0.002) as well as cervical cancer ( p c 0.01). Therefore, we have demonstrated that HLA DR-DQ polymorphisms are involved in genetic susceptibility to cervical cancer or HPV infection in a northern Indian population.