Novel findings of HLA association with anti-LGI1 encephalitis: HLA-DRB1*03:01 and HLA-DQB1*02:01.

This study was to investigate whether autoimmune encephalitis is associated with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genotypes in Chinese Han population. We compared and analyzed the HLA genotypes of 101 patients with autoimmune encephalitis (77 anti-NMDAR, 11 anti-LGI1 and 13 anti-GABAR antibody, respectively) to the 200 healthy control groups. Our results showed that the DRB103:01 or DQB102:01 allele and the extended DRB103:01 ~ DQB102:01 haplotype represented the strong susceptibility locus for anti-LGI1 encephalitis (OR = 18.84, 95% CI = 5.01-70.89, Pc = 0.004; OR = 18.84, 95% CI = 5.01-70.89, Pc = 0.004; OR = 18.84, 95% CI = 5.01-70.89, Pc = 0.001). Additionally, the DRB108:03 ~ DQB106:01 or B08:01 ~ C07:02 haplotype was likely to be associated with anti-LGI1 encephalitis (OR = 10.23, 95% CI = 2.87-36.42, Pc = 0.039; OR = 74.62, 95% CI = 6.97-799.06, Pc = 0.043). No statistically significant differences were found for HLA association between patients with anti-NMDAR or anti-GABAR encephalitis and healthy controls. These results indicated that HLA subtypes were only associated with anti-LGI1 encephalitis.