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Sartoris S, Del Pozzo G. Exploring the HLA complex in autoimmunity: From the risk haplotypes to the modulation of expression. Clin Immunol 2024; 265:110266. [PMID: 38851519 DOI: 10.1016/j.clim.2024.110266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2024] [Revised: 05/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 06/10/2024]
Abstract
The genes mapping at the HLA region show high density, strong linkage disequilibrium and high polymorphism, which affect the association of HLA class I and class II genes with autoimmunity. We focused on the HLA haplotypes, genomic structures consisting of an array of specific alleles showing some degrees of genetic association with different autoimmune disorders. GWASs in many pathologies have identified variants in either the coding loci or the flanking regulatory regions, both in linkage disequilibrium in haplotypes, that are frequently associated with increased risk and may influence gene expression. We discuss the relevance of the HLA gene expression because the level of surface heterodimers determines the number of complexes presenting self-antigen and, thus, the strength of pathogenic autoreactive T cells immune response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Sartoris
- Dept. of Medicine, Section of Immunology University of Verona School of Medicine, Verona, Italy
| | - Giovanna Del Pozzo
- Institute of Genetics and Biophysics "Adriano Buzzati Traverso" National Research Council (CNR), Naples, Italy.
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2
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Smith CJ, Strausz S, Spence JP, Ollila HM, Pritchard JK. Haplotype Analysis Reveals Pleiotropic Disease Associations in the HLA Region. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.07.29.24311183. [PMID: 39132491 PMCID: PMC11312630 DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.29.24311183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/13/2024]
Abstract
The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region plays an important role in human health through involvement in immune cell recognition and maturation. While genetic variation in the HLA region is associated with many diseases, the pleiotropic patterns of these associations have not been systematically investigated. Here, we developed a haplotype approach to investigate disease associations phenome-wide for 412,181 Finnish individuals and 2,459 traits. Across the 1,035 diseases with a GWAS association, we found a 17-fold average per-SNP enrichment of hits in the HLA region. Altogether, we identified 7,649 HLA associations across 647 traits, including 1,750 associations uncovered by haplotype analysis. We find some haplotypes show trade-offs between diseases, while others consistently increase risk across traits, indicating a complex pleiotropic landscape involving a range of diseases. This study highlights the extensive impact of HLA variation on disease risk, and underscores the importance of classical and non-classical genes, as well as non-coding variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Courtney J Smith
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, Helsinki Institute of Life Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Satu Strausz
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, Helsinki Institute of Life Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Plastic Surgery, Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Center, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Jeffrey P Spence
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Hanna M Ollila
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, Helsinki Institute of Life Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MA, USA
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jonathan K Pritchard
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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3
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Long E, Patel H, Golden A, Antony M, Yin J, Funderburk K, Feng J, Song L, Hoskins JW, Amundadottir LT, Hung RJ, Amos CI, Shi J, Rothman N, Lan Q, Choi J. High-throughput characterization of functional variants highlights heterogeneity and polygenicity underlying lung cancer susceptibility. Am J Hum Genet 2024; 111:1405-1419. [PMID: 38906146 PMCID: PMC11267514 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.05.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2024] [Revised: 05/23/2024] [Accepted: 05/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified numerous lung cancer risk-associated loci. However, decoding molecular mechanisms of these associations is challenging since most of these genetic variants are non-protein-coding with unknown function. Here, we implemented massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) to simultaneously measure the allelic transcriptional activity of risk-associated variants. We tested 2,245 variants at 42 loci from 3 recent GWASs in East Asian and European populations in the context of two major lung cancer histological types and exposure to benzo(a)pyrene. This MPRA approach identified one or more variants (median 11 variants) with significant effects on transcriptional activity at 88% of GWAS loci. Multimodal integration of lung-specific epigenomic data demonstrated that 63% of the loci harbored multiple potentially functional variants in linkage disequilibrium. While 22% of the significant variants showed allelic effects in both A549 (adenocarcinoma) and H520 (squamous cell carcinoma) cell lines, a subset of the functional variants displayed a significant cell-type interaction. Transcription factor analyses nominated potential regulators of the functional variants, including those with cell-type-specific expression and those predicted to bind multiple potentially functional variants across the GWAS loci. Linking functional variants to target genes based on four complementary approaches identified candidate susceptibility genes, including those affecting lung cancer cell growth. CRISPR interference of the top functional variant at 20q13.33 validated variant-to-gene connections, including RTEL1, SOX18, and ARFRP1. Our data provide a comprehensive functional analysis of lung cancer GWAS loci and help elucidate the molecular basis of heterogeneity and polygenicity underlying lung cancer susceptibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erping Long
- State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
| | - Harsh Patel
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Alyxandra Golden
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Michelle Antony
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Jinhu Yin
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Karen Funderburk
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - James Feng
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Lei Song
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Jason W Hoskins
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Laufey T Amundadottir
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Rayjean J Hung
- Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, Canada
| | - Christopher I Amos
- Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Jianxin Shi
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Nathaniel Rothman
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Qing Lan
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Jiyeon Choi
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.
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4
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Gil-Etayo FJ, Arroyo-Sánchez D, Niño Ramírez JE, Vicente Parra A, Tejeda Velarde A. Two new HLA-DQB1*03:02:01 variants with substitutions in intron 2: HLA-DQB1*03:02:01:19 and -DQB1*03:02:01:21. HLA 2024; 103:e15492. [PMID: 38706128 DOI: 10.1111/tan.15492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Revised: 04/06/2024] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 05/07/2024]
Abstract
Two different single nucleotide substitutions in intron 2 give rise to novel HLA-DQB1*03:02:01 alleles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisco Javier Gil-Etayo
- Laboratorio de HLA-Biología Molecular, Servicio de Hematología, Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Salamanca (IBSAL), Salamanca, Spain
| | - Daniel Arroyo-Sánchez
- Laboratorio de HLA-Biología Molecular, Servicio de Hematología, Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Jairo Eduardo Niño Ramírez
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Salamanca (IBSAL), Salamanca, Spain
- Universidad de Salamanca (USAL), Salamanca, Spain
| | - Ariadna Vicente Parra
- Laboratorio de HLA-Biología Molecular, Servicio de Hematología, Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Amalia Tejeda Velarde
- Laboratorio de HLA-Biología Molecular, Servicio de Hematología, Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Salamanca (IBSAL), Salamanca, Spain
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5
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Shook MS, Lu X, Chen X, Parameswaran S, Edsall L, Trimarchi MP, Ernst K, Granitto M, Forney C, Donmez OA, Diouf AA, VonHandorf A, Rothenberg ME, Weirauch MT, Kottyan LC. Systematic identification of genotype-dependent enhancer variants in eosinophilic esophagitis. Am J Hum Genet 2024; 111:280-294. [PMID: 38183988 PMCID: PMC10870143 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.12.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2023] [Revised: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a rare atopic disorder associated with esophageal dysfunction, including difficulty swallowing, food impaction, and inflammation, that develops in a small subset of people with food allergies. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified 9 independent EoE risk loci reaching genome-wide significance (p < 5 × 10-8) and 27 additional loci of suggestive significance (5 × 10-8 < p < 1 × 10-5). In the current study, we perform linkage disequilibrium (LD) expansion of these loci to nominate a set of 531 variants that are potentially causal. To systematically interrogate the gene regulatory activity of these variants, we designed a massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) containing the alleles of each variant within their genomic sequence context cloned into a GFP reporter library. Analysis of reporter gene expression in TE-7, HaCaT, and Jurkat cells revealed cell-type-specific gene regulation. We identify 32 allelic enhancer variants, representing 6 genome-wide significant EoE loci and 7 suggestive EoE loci, that regulate reporter gene expression in a genotype-dependent manner in at least one cellular context. By annotating these variants with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) and chromatin looping data in related tissues and cell types, we identify putative target genes affected by genetic variation in individuals with EoE. Transcription factor enrichment analyses reveal possible roles for cell-type-specific regulators, including GATA3. Our approach reduces the large set of EoE-associated variants to a set of 32 with allelic regulatory activity, providing functional insights into the effects of genetic variation in this disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Molly S Shook
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Xiaoming Lu
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Xiaoting Chen
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Sreeja Parameswaran
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Lee Edsall
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Michael P Trimarchi
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Kevin Ernst
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Marissa Granitto
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Carmy Forney
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Omer A Donmez
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Arame A Diouf
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Andrew VonHandorf
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Marc E Rothenberg
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA; Division of Allergy and Immunology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Matthew T Weirauch
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA; Division of Biomedical Informatics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA; Division of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA; Division of Human Genetics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA.
| | - Leah C Kottyan
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA; Division of Allergy and Immunology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA; Division of Human Genetics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA.
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6
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Mizutani A, Suzuki S, Shigenari A, Sato T, Tanaka M, Kulski JK, Shiina T. Nucleotide alterations in the HLA-C class I gene can cause aberrant splicing and marked changes in RNA levels in a polymorphic context-dependent manner. Front Immunol 2024; 14:1332636. [PMID: 38327766 PMCID: PMC10847315 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1332636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Polymorphisms of HLA genes, which play a crucial role in presenting peptides with diverse sequences in their peptide-binding pockets, are also thought to affect HLA gene expression, as many studies have reported associations between HLA gene polymorphisms and their expression levels. In this study, we devised an ectopic expression assay for the HLA class I genes in the context of the entire gene, and used the assay to show that the HLA-C*03:03:01 and C*04:01:01 polymorphic differences observed in association studies indeed cause different levels of RNA expression. Subsequently, we investigated the C*03:23N null allele, which was previously noted for its reduced expression, attributed to an alternate exon 3 3' splice site generated by G/A polymorphism at position 781 within the exon 3. We conducted a thorough analysis of the splicing patterns of C*03:23N, and revealed multiple aberrant splicing, including the exon 3 alternative splicing, which overshadowed its canonical counterpart. After confirming a significant reduction in RNA levels caused by the G781A alteration in our ectopic assay, we probed the function of the G-rich sequence preceding the canonical exon 3 3' splice site. Substituting the G-rich sequence with a typical pyrimidine-rich 3' splice site sequence on C*03:23N resulted in a marked elevation in RNA levels, likely due to the enhanced preference for the canonical exon 3 3' splice site over the alternate site. However, the same substitution led to a reduction in RNA levels for C*03:03:01. These findings suggested the dual roles of the G-rich sequence in RNA expression, and furthermore, underscore the importance of studying polymorphism effects within the framework of the entire gene, extending beyond conventional mini-gene reporter assays.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akiko Mizutani
- Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan
- Faculty of Health and Medical Science, Teikyo Heisei University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Shingo Suzuki
- Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Atsuko Shigenari
- Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Tadayuki Sato
- Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Masafumi Tanaka
- Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Jerzy K Kulski
- Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan
- School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA, Australia
| | - Takashi Shiina
- Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan
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7
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Kang JB, Shen AZ, Gurajala S, Nathan A, Rumker L, Aguiar VRC, Valencia C, Lagattuta KA, Zhang F, Jonsson AH, Yazar S, Alquicira-Hernandez J, Khalili H, Ananthakrishnan AN, Jagadeesh K, Dey K, Daly MJ, Xavier RJ, Donlin LT, Anolik JH, Powell JE, Rao DA, Brenner MB, Gutierrez-Arcelus M, Luo Y, Sakaue S, Raychaudhuri S. Mapping the dynamic genetic regulatory architecture of HLA genes at single-cell resolution. Nat Genet 2023; 55:2255-2268. [PMID: 38036787 PMCID: PMC10787945 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01586-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 10/19/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023]
Abstract
The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) locus plays a critical role in complex traits spanning autoimmune and infectious diseases, transplantation and cancer. While coding variation in HLA genes has been extensively documented, regulatory genetic variation modulating HLA expression levels has not been comprehensively investigated. Here we mapped expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) for classical HLA genes across 1,073 individuals and 1,131,414 single cells from three tissues. To mitigate technical confounding, we developed scHLApers, a pipeline to accurately quantify single-cell HLA expression using personalized reference genomes. We identified cell-type-specific cis-eQTLs for every classical HLA gene. Modeling eQTLs at single-cell resolution revealed that many eQTL effects are dynamic across cell states even within a cell type. HLA-DQ genes exhibit particularly cell-state-dependent effects within myeloid, B and T cells. For example, a T cell HLA-DQA1 eQTL ( rs3104371 ) is strongest in cytotoxic cells. Dynamic HLA regulation may underlie important interindividual variability in immune responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joyce B Kang
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Amber Z Shen
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Saisriram Gurajala
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Aparna Nathan
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Laurie Rumker
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Vitor R C Aguiar
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Cristian Valencia
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kaitlyn A Lagattuta
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Fan Zhang
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology and the Center for Health Artificial Intelligence, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - Anna Helena Jonsson
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Seyhan Yazar
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | | | - Hamed Khalili
- Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ashwin N Ananthakrishnan
- Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Kushal Dey
- Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
- Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology Program, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Mark J Daly
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- The Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ramnik J Xavier
- Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Laura T Donlin
- Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA
- Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jennifer H Anolik
- Department of Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA
| | - Joseph E Powell
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Deepak A Rao
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Michael B Brenner
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Maria Gutierrez-Arcelus
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Yang Luo
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Saori Sakaue
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Soumya Raychaudhuri
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
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8
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Kelly JA, Tessneer KL, Gaffney PM. Taming the HLA for single-cell genomics. Nat Genet 2023; 55:2025-2026. [PMID: 38036786 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01590-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer A Kelly
- Genes and Human Disease Research Program, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
| | - Kandice L Tessneer
- Genes and Human Disease Research Program, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
| | - Patrick M Gaffney
- Genes and Human Disease Research Program, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
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9
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Kang JB, Shen AZ, Sakaue S, Luo Y, Gurajala S, Nathan A, Rumker L, Aguiar VRC, Valencia C, Lagattuta K, Zhang F, Jonsson AH, Yazar S, Alquicira-Hernandez J, Khalili H, Ananthakrishnan AN, Jagadeesh K, Dey K, Daly MJ, Xavier RJ, Donlin LT, Anolik JH, Powell JE, Rao DA, Brenner MB, Gutierrez-Arcelus M, Raychaudhuri S. Mapping the dynamic genetic regulatory architecture of HLA genes at single-cell resolution. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.03.14.23287257. [PMID: 36993194 PMCID: PMC10055604 DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.14.23287257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) locus plays a critical role in complex traits spanning autoimmune and infectious diseases, transplantation, and cancer. While coding variation in HLA genes has been extensively documented, regulatory genetic variation modulating HLA expression levels has not been comprehensively investigated. Here, we mapped expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) for classical HLA genes across 1,073 individuals and 1,131,414 single cells from three tissues, using personalized reference genomes to mitigate technical confounding. We identified cell-type-specific cis-eQTLs for every classical HLA gene. Modeling eQTLs at single-cell resolution revealed that many eQTL effects are dynamic across cell states even within a cell type. HLA-DQ genes exhibit particularly cell-state-dependent effects within myeloid, B, and T cells. Dynamic HLA regulation may underlie important interindividual variability in immune responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joyce B. Kang
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Amber Z. Shen
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Saori Sakaue
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Yang Luo
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Saisriram Gurajala
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Aparna Nathan
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Laurie Rumker
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Vitor R. C. Aguiar
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Cristian Valencia
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kaitlyn Lagattuta
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Fan Zhang
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology and the Center for Health Artificial Intelligence, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - Anna Helena Jonsson
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Seyhan Yazar
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Hamed Khalili
- Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ashwin N. Ananthakrishnan
- Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | - Kushal Dey
- Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Mark J. Daly
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- The Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ramnik J. Xavier
- Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Laura T. Donlin
- Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA
- Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jennifer H. Anolik
- Department of Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA
| | | | - Deepak A. Rao
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Michael B. Brenner
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Maria Gutierrez-Arcelus
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Soumya Raychaudhuri
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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10
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Aguiar VRC, Castelli EC, Single RM, Bashirova A, Ramsuran V, Kulkarni S, Augusto DG, Martin MP, Gutierrez-Arcelus M, Carrington M, Meyer D. Comparison between qPCR and RNA-seq reveals challenges of quantifying HLA expression. Immunogenetics 2023; 75:249-262. [PMID: 36707444 PMCID: PMC9883133 DOI: 10.1007/s00251-023-01296-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and II loci are essential elements of innate and acquired immunity. Their functions include antigen presentation to T cells leading to cellular and humoral immune responses, and modulation of NK cells. Their exceptional influence on disease outcome has now been made clear by genome-wide association studies. The exons encoding the peptide-binding groove have been the main focus for determining HLA effects on disease susceptibility/pathogenesis. However, HLA expression levels have also been implicated in disease outcome, adding another dimension to the extreme diversity of HLA that impacts variability in immune responses across individuals. To estimate HLA expression, immunogenetic studies traditionally rely on quantitative PCR (qPCR). Adoption of alternative high-throughput technologies such as RNA-seq has been hampered by technical issues due to the extreme polymorphism at HLA genes. Recently, however, multiple bioinformatic methods have been developed to accurately estimate HLA expression from RNA-seq data. This opens an exciting opportunity to quantify HLA expression in large datasets but also brings questions on whether RNA-seq results are comparable to those by qPCR. In this study, we analyze three classes of expression data for HLA class I genes for a matched set of individuals: (a) RNA-seq, (b) qPCR, and (c) cell surface HLA-C expression. We observed a moderate correlation between expression estimates from qPCR and RNA-seq for HLA-A, -B, and -C (0.2 ≤ rho ≤ 0.53). We discuss technical and biological factors which need to be accounted for when comparing quantifications for different molecular phenotypes or using different techniques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vitor R. C. Aguiar
- Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP Brazil ,Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA ,Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA USA
| | - Erick C. Castelli
- Molecular Genetics and Bioinformatics Laboratory, Experimental Research Unit, School of Medicine, São Paulo State University, Botucatu, SP Brazil
| | - Richard M. Single
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT USA
| | - Arman Bashirova
- Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD USA ,Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD USA
| | - Veron Ramsuran
- Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD USA ,Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD USA ,Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa ,School of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
| | - Smita Kulkarni
- Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD USA ,Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD USA ,Host-Pathogen Interactions Program, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, TX USA
| | - Danillo G. Augusto
- Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD USA ,Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD USA ,Department of Biological Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC USA ,Programa de Pós-Graduação em Genética, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR Brazil
| | - Maureen P. Martin
- Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD USA ,Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD USA
| | - Maria Gutierrez-Arcelus
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA ,Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA USA
| | - Mary Carrington
- Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD USA ,Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD USA ,Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA USA
| | - Diogo Meyer
- Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP Brazil
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11
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Johansson T, Partanen J, Saavalainen P. HLA allele-specific expression: Methods, disease associations, and relevance in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Front Immunol 2022; 13:1007425. [PMID: 36248878 PMCID: PMC9554311 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1007425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Varying HLA allele-specific expression levels are associated with human diseases, such as graft versus host disease (GvHD) in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), cytotoxic T cell response and viral load in HIV infection, and the risk of Crohn’s disease. Only recently, RNA-based next generation sequencing (NGS) methodologies with accompanying bioinformatics tools have emerged to quantify HLA allele-specific expression replacing the quantitative PCR (qPCR) -based methods. These novel NGS approaches enable the systematic analysis of the HLA allele-specific expression changes between individuals and between normal and disease phenotypes. Additionally, analyzing HLA allele-specific expression and allele-specific expression loss provide important information for predicting efficacies of novel immune cell therapies. Here, we review available RNA sequencing-based approaches and computational tools for NGS to quantify HLA allele-specific expression. Moreover, we explore recent studies reporting disease associations with differential HLA expression. Finally, we discuss the role of allele-specific expression in HSCT and how considering the expression quantification in recipient-donor matching could improve the outcome of HSCT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tiira Johansson
- Translational Immunology Research Program, Research Programs Unit, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Research and Development, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, Helsinki, Finland
- *Correspondence: Tiira Johansson,
| | - Jukka Partanen
- Research and Development, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Päivi Saavalainen
- Translational Immunology Research Program, Research Programs Unit, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Genetics Research Program, Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland
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