Allelic variation in HLA‐DRB1* loci in Syrian pemphigus vulgaris patients

Background Pemphigus vulgaris ( PV ) is known to be strongly associated with particular alleles of the human leukocyte antigen ( HLA )‐ DRB 1* loci. However, to date, the association of HLA with pemphigus has not been studied in a Syrian population. Objectives We aimed to study HLA ‐ DRB 1* loci variation in Syrian PV patients. Methods We used a sequence‐specific primer polymerase chain reaction method to define the allele type of the DRB 1* loci in 91 patients with PV and 270 healthy control subjects. Results We noticed an increased frequency of HLA ‐ DRB 1*04 and DRB 1*14 alleles in patients with PV compared with healthy control subjects (67.0% vs. 26.3%; odds ratio [ OR ] = 5.7, corrected P  < 0.0001 for DRB 1*04; 54.9% vs. 11.0%; OR  = 9.5, corrected P  < 0.0001 for DRB 1*14). Among DRB 1*04‐positive PV patients, the DRB 1*402 subtype was markedly increased compared with DRB 1*04‐positive healthy controls (84.3% vs. 26.7%; corrected P  = 0.002), whereas the DRB 1*0403 variant was represented more commonly in DRB 1*04‐positive healthy individuals than in DRB 1*04‐positive PV patients (45.0% vs. 1.6%; corrected P  < 0.0001). In addition, the frequency of DRB 1*11 was significantly decreased in PV patients compared with healthy controls (19.7% vs. 50.4%; OR  = 0.25, corrected P  < 0.0001). Conclusions The occurrence of PV is positively associated with HLA ‐ DRB 1*14 and HLA ‐ DRB 1*0402 but negatively associated with HLA ‐ DRB 1*11 in the Syrian population.