CHARACTERISTIC SPECTRA OF CLASS I AND II HLA-ALLELES IN PATIENTS WITH DIFFERENT CLINICAL FORMS OF JUVENILE IDIOPATHIC ARTHRITIS IN THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

The genes of the major histocompatibility complex (HLA) play a significant role in the genetic predisposition to juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and determine up to 18 % of disease risk. This work was aimed to reveal associations of the HLA characteristic pattern with two clinically different forms of JIA in the Belarusian population. 24 patients diagnosed with systemic JIA, 24 patients with oligoarticular JIA and 24 healthy controls were included into the study. High-throughput HLA typing for 11 loci was performed using TruSight HLA v2 Sequencing Panel (Illumina) on the MiSeq system. DQB1*04:02:01 (p = 0.026; OR 5.88 [1.20-28.72]), DRB1*08:01:01 (p = 0.07; OR 3.94 [1.01-15.39]) and DR8-haplotype (p = 0.006; OR 3.95 [1.34-11.63]) frequencies were significantly higher in patients with oligoarthritis but not systemic JIA when compared with controls. While DQA1* 05:01:01 and DQB1*02:01:01 alleles showed a protective effect against both systemic (p = 0.007, OR 0.08 [0.009-0.65]; p = 0.01, OR 0.09 [0.01-0.83]) and oliarticular JIA (p = 0.026, OR 0.16 [0.03-0.79]; p = 0.046, OR 0.2 [0.04-1.00], the negative association of the DRB1*03:01 allele was revealed only for systemic JIA (p = 0.03, OR 0.11 [0.01-0.88]). Thus, the obtained results suggest that different HLA-patterns are involved into the formation of various JIA subtypes.