Associations of HLA-DRB1 and -DQB1 alleles with severe recurrent respiratory papillomatosis in Korean patients

Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is characterized by frequent recurrences of papilloma of the larynx with significant morbidity. It is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6 and 11. Some associations of HLA genes with RRP have been reported, mainly in Caucasians. We performed HLA class II (DRB1 and DQB1) genotyping using Dynal RELI™ HLA-DRB1 SSO kit and PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism on 22 Korean patients with severe RRP and 207 healthy controls. The gene frequencies of HLA-DRB1*11:01 (18.2% vs 3.6%, p = 0.0006, pc = 0.02, odds ratio [OR] = 5.9) and DQB1*03:01 (36.4% vs 14.5%, p = 0.0009, pc = 0.01, OR = 3.4) and the haplotype frequency of DRB1*11:01-DQB1*03:01 (15.9% vs 3.6%, p = 0.003, OR = 5.0) was higher in RRP patients than controls. DRB1*11:01 and DRB1*11:01-DQB1*03:01 haplotype were strongly associated with disease susceptibility to severe RRP in Koreans.