Genetic epidemiology of glioblastoma multiforme: confirmatory and new findings from analyses of human leukocyte antigen alleles and motifs.

BACKGROUND

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I genes mediate cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses and natural killer cell function. In a previous study, several HLA-B and HLA-C alleles and haplotypes were positively or negatively associated with the occurrence and prognosis of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: As an extension of the Upper Midwest Health Study, we have performed HLA genotyping for 149 GBM patients and 149 healthy control subjects from a non-metropolitan population consisting almost exclusively of European Americans. Conditional logistic regression models did not reproduce the association of HLA-B07 or the B07-Cw07 haplotype with GBM. Nonetheless, HLA-A32, which has previously been shown to predispose GBM patients to a favorable prognosis, was negatively associated with occurrence of GBM (odds ratio=0.41, p=0.04 by univariate analysis). Other alleles (A29, A30, A31 and A33) within the A19 serology group to which A32 belongs showed inconsistent trends. Sequencing-based HLA-A genotyping established that A3201 was the single A*32 allele underlying the observed association. Additional evaluation of HLA-A promoter and exon 1 sequences did not detect any unexpected single nucleotide polymorphisms that could suggest differential allelic expression. Further analyses restricted to female GBM cases and controls revealed a second association with a specific HLA-B sequence motif corresponding to Bw4-80Ile (odds ratio=2.71, p=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: HLA-A allelic product encoded by A*3201 is likely to be functionally important to GBM. The novel, sex-specific association will require further confirmation in other representative study populations.