HLA-DRB1 does not have a role in clinical response to interferon-beta among Iranian multiple sclerosis patients

The role of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) in clinical response to immunotherapy is not completely known. In this study we evaluated the relationship between HLA-DRB1 genotype, which has been proved to be more common in Iranian MS patients, and clinical response to interferon-beta (IFNβ), which is the most common immunotherapy for relapsing-remitting MS.

In this study 68 Iranian patients with confirmed diagnosis of RRMS who had been referred to and admitted in Neurology Department of Amiralam and Khatam Hospitals in Tehran were selected. Patients were followed prospectively for 2 years since initiation of therapy and clinical data, including EDSS scores were recorded every 3 months. MRI was performed at the time of diagnosis and each year.

HLA-DRB1 typing was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for all patients and data was analyzed by STATA 12th edition.

There were 47 (69.1%) responders and 21 (30.9%) non-responders. These two groups were demographically and clinically comparable. Fisher's exact test did not show any difference between HLA-DRB1 allele frequencies in responders and non-responders.

Our findings confirmed the lack of association between HLA-DRB1 and clinical response to IFNβ among MS patients as previous studies had done.