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Personalized Peptide Arrays for Detection of HLA Alloantibodies in Organ Transplantation

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HLA-DRB1 and multiple sclerosis in Malta.

G Dean¹, T W Yeo, A Goris

¹Health Research Board, Dublin, Ireland. hrb@hrb.ie

|December 7, 2007

Summary

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is less common in Malta than in Sicily. Despite genetic factors, HLA-DRB1 allele frequencies do not explain this difference in MS prevalence between the islands.

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Personalized Peptide Arrays for Detection of HLA Alloantibodies in Organ Transplantation

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Microbiota Analysis Using Two-step PCR and Next-generation 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing

Microbiota Analysis Using Two-step PCR and Next-generation 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing

Published on: October 15, 2019

Area of Science:

Genetics
Epidemiology
Neurology

Background:

Multiple sclerosis (MS) prevalence is notably lower in Malta compared to neighboring Sicily.
Investigating genetic factors, specifically human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles, is crucial for understanding MS epidemiology.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether lower frequencies of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) susceptibility alleles contribute to the reduced prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Malta.
To compare HLA-DRB1 allele frequencies in the Maltese population with those in Sicily and other European countries.

Main Methods:

Genotyping of the HLA-DRB1 locus in 77 Maltese patients with MS and 206 healthy Maltese controls.
Comparison of Maltese HLA-DRB1 allele frequencies with existing data from Sicily and other European populations.

Main Results:

The known MS susceptibility allele, HLA-DRB1*15, was confirmed in the Maltese population.
The HLA-DRB1*11 allele showed a significant protective effect in Malta.
Contrary to expectations, all HLA-DRB1 risk alleles were more frequent in Malta than in Sicily, while HLA-DRB1*11 was less common.

Conclusions:

Observed differences in multiple sclerosis prevalence between Malta and Sicily cannot be attributed to variations in background HLA-DRB1 population allele frequencies.
The genetic data suggest that higher frequencies of certain HLA-DRB1 alleles in Malta should predict a greater, not lesser, prevalence of MS compared to Sicily.