Follicular lymphoma-protective HLA class II variants correlate with increased HLA-DQB1 protein expression

• Published in: Genes and immunity Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 133 - 136
• Main Authors: Sillé, F C M, Conde, L, Zhang, J, Akers, N K, Sanchez, S, Maltbaek, J, Riby, J E, Smith, M T, Skibola, C F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.03.2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/208/199; 692/420; 692/699/67/1990/291/1621/1915; Amino acids; Antigens; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cancer Research; Cell lines; Cells, Cultured; Dendritic cells; Dendritic Cells - immunology; DQA1 protein; Drb1 protein; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Enzymes; Epidemiology; Flow cytometry; Gene Expression; Gene Frequency; Genetic aspects; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Haplotypes; Haplotypes - genetics; Haplotypes - immunology; Histocompatibility antigen HLA; HLA-DQ beta-Chains - biosynthesis; HLA-DQ beta-Chains - genetics; HLA-DQ beta-Chains - immunology; Human Genetics; Humans; Immunology; Immunosurveillance; Leukocytes; Linkage disequilibrium; Linkage Disequilibrium - genetics; Lipopolysaccharides; Lymphoblastoid cell lines; Lymphocyte Activation; Lymphoma; Lymphoma, Follicular - genetics; Lymphoma, Follicular - immunology; Lymphomas; Major histocompatibility complex; Physiological aspects; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Protein expression; Proteins; Quantitative trait loci; Quantitative Trait Loci - immunology; Reverse transcription; short-communication; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Tumors; Western blotting; United States > US; follicular lymphoma; human leukocyte antigen; protein expression; gene expression
• ISSN: 1466-4879; 1476-5470
• DOI: 10.1038/gene.2013.64

Multiple follicular lymphoma (FL) susceptibility single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and II regions have been identified, including rs6457327, rs3117222, rs2647012, rs10484561, rs9268853 and rs2621416. Here we validated previous expression quantitative trait loci results with real-time reverse transcription quantitative PCR and investigated protein expression in B-lymphoblastoid cell lines and primary dendritic cells using flow cytometry, cell-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and western blotting. We confirmed that FL-protective rs2647012-linked variants, in high linkage disequilibrium with the extended haplotype DRB1*15:01-DQA1*01:02-DQB1*06:02, correlate with increased HLA-DQB1 expression. This association remained significant at the protein level and was reproducible across different cell types. We also found that differences in HLA-DQB1 expression were not related to changes in activation markers or class II, major histocompatibility complex, transactivator expression, suggesting the role of an alternative regulatory mechanism. However, functional analysis using RegulomeDB did not reveal any relevant regulatory candidates. Future studies should focus on the clinical relevance of increased HLA-DQB1 protein expression facilitating tumor cell removal through increased immune surveillance.