Wilson's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Wilson's Disease, including details on treatment, causes, symptoms, medication.

Association between radiographic severity of rheumatoid arthritis and shared epitope alleles: differing mechanisms of susceptibility and protection.

Mewar D, Marinou I, Coote AL, Moore DJ, Akil M, Smillie D, Dickson MC, Binks MH, Montgomery DS, Wilson AG

School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Sheffield, Beech Hill Road, Sheffield, UK.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of a recently described classification of Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1 shared epitope alleles with rheumatoid factors (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) production and radiological severity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Patients with RA (n = 962) were studied. Genotyping of DRB1 alleles and assays for RF and anti-CCP were performed. Radiological severity was measured using the modified Larsen score. RESULTS: In accordance with previous reports, we found carriage of S2 alleles (K-R-A-A at positions 71-74) to be associated with more severe disease with a gene-dose effect (p = 0.0059), and also associated with the presence of anti-CCP and RF (p<0.001). Carriage of S1 alleles (D-E-R-A-A at positions 70-74) was associated with less severe disease (p = 0.01), however there was no association between S1 and either anti-CCP or RF, suggesting that the basis for this possible protective effect was not related to autoantibody-producing B cells. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that multiple biological mechanisms underlie the DRB1 association with rheumatoid arthritis severity.

Published 16 June 2008 in Ann Rheum Dis, 67(7): 980-3.
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