Identifying the immune interactions underlying HLA class I disease associations
- Imperial College London, United Kingdom
- University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Johns Hopkins University, United States
- Johns Hopkins, United States
- University of Southampton, United Kingdom
- Rho, United States
- NCI, United States
Abstract
Variation in the risk and severity of many autoimmune diseases, malignancies and infections is strongly associated with polymorphisms in the HLA class I loci. These genetic associations provide a powerful opportunity for understanding the etiology of human disease. HLA class I associations are often interpreted in the light of 'protective' or 'detrimental' CD8+ T cell responses which are restricted by the host HLA class I allotype. However, given the diverse receptors which are bound by HLA class I molecules, alternative interpretations are possible. As well as binding T cell receptors on CD8+ T cells, HLA class I molecules are important ligands for inhibitory and activating killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) which are found on natural killer cells and some T cells; for the CD94:NKG2 family of receptors also expressed mainly by NK cells and for leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors (LILRs) on myeloid cells. The aim of this study is to develop an immunogenetic approach for identifying and quantifying the relative contribution of different receptor-ligand interactions to a given HLA class I disease association and then to use this approach to investigate the immune interactions underlying HLA class I disease associations in three viral infections: Human T cell Leukemia Virus type 1, Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 and Hepatitis C Virus as well as in the inflammatory condition Crohn's disease.
Data availability
Upon acceptance we will upload, to a public database, all the data analysis ie the data underlying Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Supplementary Figure S1, Supplementary Figure S2, Supplementary Figure S3 and Supplementary Figure S4. We are unable to provide the raw patient data as this has been released to us under MTAs and uploading of data would violate the terms of these MTAs.The PIs we contacted for the various cohorts are: Pat Fast, IAVI, New York (IAVI); Charles Bangham, Imperial College London, UK (Kagoshima cohort); Greg Kirk, Johns Hopkins, USA (ALIVE cohort); James Goedert, NIH (MHCS cohort); Sharyne Donfield, Rho, USA (HGDS cohort); Salim Khakoo, University of Southampton, UK (UK HCV cohort) and James Lee, University of Cambridge, UK (Crohn's disease cohort). Requests for data access and usage are reviewed by the relevant boards at each institution.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Wellcome (103865Z/14/Z)
- Becca Asquith
National Institutes of Health (R01-DA-12568)
- Gregory Kirk
National Institutes of Health (K24-AI118591)
- Gregory Kirk
Medical Research Council (J007439)
- Becca Asquith
Medical Research Council (G1001052)
- Becca Asquith
European Commission (317040)
- Becca Asquith
Bloodwise (15012)
- Becca Asquith
Wellcome (105920/Z/14/Z)
- James C Lee
National Institutes of Health (DA13324)
- Chloe L Thio
National Institutes of Health (R01-HD-41224)
- Sharyne M Donfield
National Institutes of Health (U01-DA-036297)
- Gregory Kirk
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: This study was approved by the NHS Research Ethics Committee (13/WS/0064) and the Imperial College Research Ethics Committee (ICREC_11_1_2). Informed consent was obtained at the study sites from all individuals. The study was conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Copyright
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
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Identifying the immune interactions underlying HLA class I disease associations
eLife 9:e54558.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54558
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