HLA Correlations with Clinical Phenotypes and Risk of Metabolic Comorbidities in Singapore Chinese Psoriasis Patients.

INTRODUCTION

Psoriasis is a systemic, chronic inflammatory disease that not only afflicts the skin but is also associated with cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. The strongest susceptibility loci for the disease is within the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex, though specific HLA allelic associations vary between populations.

OBJECTIVE

Our objective was to investigate HLA associations with clinical phenotypes of psoriasis and metabolic syndrome in Chinese psoriasis cases.

METHODS

We conducted an observational case-control study in Singapore with a cohort of psoriasis cases consecutively recruited from an outpatient specialist dermatological center (n = 120) compared with 130 healthy controls.

RESULTS

Significant HLA associations with psoriasis were observed with HLA-A02:07, B46:01, C01:02, and C06:02. The three-locus haplotype of A02:07-C01:02-B46:01 was also significant (odds ratio [OR] 3.07; p = 9.47 × 10). We also observed an association between nail psoriasis and HLA-A02:07 carriers (OR 4.50; p = 0.002), whereas C06:02 carriers were less prone to have nail involvement (OR 0.16; p = 0.004). HLA-A02:07 was also identified as a possible risk allele for hypertension (OR 2.90; p < 0.05), and C*01:02 was a possible risk allele for dyslipidemia (OR 3.36; p < 0.05), both known to be common comorbidities in patients with psoriasis.

CONCLUSION

Our results demonstrate the growing importance of discerning population-specific clinical phenotypes and their association with certain HLA alleles in psoriasis.