Association of HLA class I and II genes with cervical cancer susceptibility in a Han Chinese population

Abstract

Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the leading causes of cancer‐related death in females worldwide. Genome‐wide association studies (GWASs) have identified CC‐related susceptibility loci in HLA regions. To investigate the associations between HLA genes and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) or cervical cancer (CC), six loci of HLA class I (HLA‐A, ‐B, and ‐C) and II (HLA‐DRB1, ‐DPB1, and ‐DQB1) were selected for genotyping, and the associations between these alleles or their haplotypes with CIN or CC risk or protection from disease were evaluated. In total, 2193 participants, including 909 healthy individuals in the control group, 769 patients with CC, and 515 patients with CIN2+ (CIN II and III), were enrolled in the current study. HLA genes were genotyped using the NGSgo Illumina MiSeq workflow, and the associations between these loci and CIN2+ or CC at the allele and haplotype levels were analyzed. The allele frequencies of HLA‐A*33:03, B*58:01, C*03:02, DPB1*05:01, and DRB1*12:01 were lower in both the CC and CIN2+ groups than in the control group, whereas those of B*55:02, C*04:03, and DPB1*03:01 were higher in the CC group than in the control group. In the histologic CC type analysis, the differences in the frequencies of these alleles in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the cervix and stage I CC showed a consistent trend. In the haplotype analysis, the frequency of A*33:03‐C*03:02‐B*58:01 was lower in the CC and CIN2+ groups than in the control group, and that of A*24:02‐C*04:03‐B*15:25 was higher in the CC group than in both the control and CIN2+ groups. These three different haplotype frequencies were also identified in the FIGO CC stage analysis. In addition, in human papilloma virus (HPV) genotype analyses, the frequencies of HLA‐C*03:02 and DPB1*05:01 were significantly lower in the CC and CIN2+ groups than in the control group, and in SCC subgroup, the frequencies of HLA‐DQB1*04:01 and DRB1*04:05 were higher in the HPV other genotype infection group than in the HPV16 infection group. In both HPV16 single infection and coinfection with other HPVs, the frequency of haplotype A*33:03‐C*03:02‐B*58:01 was lower in both CC and CIN2+ than in the control group, while the frequencies of A*11:01‐C*14:02‐B*51:01 and A*24:02‐C*03:04‐B*13:01 were higher in the CIN2+ than in CC and the control group. In the HPV16 and other HPV infection comparisons, the frequencies of DRB1*04:05‐DQB1*04:01‐DPB1*02:01 and DRB1*11:01‐DQB1*03:01‐DPB1*05:01 were lower in the HPV16 infection group than in the other HPV infection group. Our results suggest that the HLA class I and II genes may affect the risk of CIN and CC as well as the histologic CC types and FIGO stages of CC in the Han Chinese population. In addition, HLA genes were associated with HPV16 infection at both the allelic and haplotype levels.