Association of HLA-DRB1, DQA1 and DQB1 Alleles and Haplotypes with Common Variable Immunodeficiency in Iranian Patients

Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) is an antibody deficiency syndrome that often co-occurs in families with selective IgA deficiency (IgAD). This study was designed to investigate the frequency of DR and DQ loci of HLA class II region in common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) patients. Fifteen Iranian patients with CVID or IgAD (mean age 14.6±5.4, range 4-25 years; 9 male and 6 female) and 63 healthy controls were studied. Establishment of B-lymphoblastoid cell lines was performed using Epstein-Barr-virus (EBV) immortalization technique and HLA alleles were typed using polymerase chain reaction based on sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP). DRB1 alleles including DRB1 *04 (p=0.03) and DRB1 *11 (p=0.01) significantly showed higher frequency in the studied subjects. In contrast, DRB1 *301 (p=0.04) and DRB1 *07 (p=0.02) alleles were negatively associated with CVID. For DQB1 and DQA1 loci, DQB1 *0302 (p=0.047) and DQA1 *03011 (p=0.001) demonstrated high frequency in cases, while DQB1 *0201 (p=0.02) and DQA1 *0201 (p=0.01) were detected to be low when compared to controls. Haplotype analysis indicated that frequency of DRB1*04-DQB1*03011-DQA1 *03011 (p=0.02), DRB1 *11-DQB1 *03011-DQA1 *0505 (p=0.047), DRB1 *11-DQA1 *0505 (p=0.04) and DRB1*04-DQA1*03011 (p=0.02) haplotypes were significantly higher in patient group, while only the frequency of the DRB1 *07-DQA1 *0201 haplotype gene was statistically lower in control group (p=0.02). According to the results, it could be deduced that the HLA-DR and DQ loci may contribute to the pathogenesis of CVID or they might be considered as suitable markers for the possibility of the occurrence of this genetic defect.