Sequence analysis of the diabetes-protective human leukocyte antigen-DQB1*0602 allele in unaffected, islet cell antibody-positive first degree relatives and in rare patients with type 1 diabetes.
The human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQA1*0102/DQB1*0602/DRB1*1501 (DR2) haplotype confers strong protection from type 1 diabetes. Growing evidence suggests that such protection may be mostly encoded by the DQB1*0602 allele, and we reported that even first degree relatives with islet cell antibodies (ICA) have an extremely low diabetes risk if they carry DQB1*0602. Recently, novel variants of the DQB1*0602 and *0603 alleles were reported in four patients with type 1 diabetes originally typed as DQB1*0602 with conventional techniques. One inference from this observation is that DQB1*0602 may confer absolute protection and may never occur in type 1 diabetes. By this hypothesis, all patients typed as DQB1*0602 positive with conventional techniques should carry one of the above diabetes-permissive variants instead of the protective DQB1*0602. Such variants could also occur in ICA/DQB1*0602-positive relatives, with the implication that their diabetes risk could be significantly higher than previously estimated. We therefore sequenced the DQB1*0602 and DQA1*0102 alleles in all ICA/DQB1*0602-positive relatives (n = 8) previously described and in six rare patients with type 1 diabetes and DQB1*0602. We found that all relatives and patients carry the known DQB1*0602 and DQA1*0102 sequences, and none of them has the mtDNA A3243G mutation associated with late-onset diabetes in ICA-positive individuals. These findings suggest that diabetes-permissive DQB1*0602/3 variants may be very rare. Thus, although the protective effect associated with DQB1*0602 is extremely powerful, it is not absolute. Nonetheless, the development of diabetes in individuals with DQB1*0602 remains extremely unlikely, even in the presence of ICA, as confirmed by our further evaluation of ICA/DQB1*0602-positive relatives, none of whom has yet developed diabetes.
D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059866:HLA-DQ beta-Chains; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation