HLA-DPB1 Variant Effect on Hepatitis B Virus Clearance and Liver Cirrhosis Development Among Southwest Chinese Population

Background: Previous studies have shown that genetic variants in HLA-DP genes affect disease progression in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate possible association between HLA-DPB1 rs9277534 polymorphism and different clinical complications of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Materials and Methods: Snapshot assay was used to investigate the association of rs9277534 polymorphism in 342 patients with persistent HBV infection and 342 age and gender-matched HBV spontaneous clearance controls. Patients were categorized into asymptomatic HBV carriers (AsC, n = 104), chronic hepatitis B (CHB, n = 116), and liver cirrhosis (LC, n = 122) subgroups. Results: There was a significantly higher proportion of the rs9277534 minor allele A in HBV spontaneous clearance control than that in HBV persistent infection group (OR = 0.58, 95%CI = 0.46-0.73, P 0.0001). Genotypic analysis showed that GA and AA genotypes were associated with HBV spontaneous clearance (GA: OR = 0.56, 95%CI = 0.40-0.79, P = 0.019; AA: OR = 0.24, 95%CI = 0.14-0.44, P 0.0001). A significant difference was found between AsC and LC groups in the distribution of AA genotype (OR = 9.32, 95%CI = 1.293-67.14, P = 0.027). Conclusions: Variant at rs9277534 could affect both the spontaneous clearance of HBV infection and progression from asymptomatic HBV carriers to HBV-related liver cirrhosis in Southwest Han Chinese population.