Scientific Reports (Mar 2024)

Association of HLA-DRB1 locus with treatment response to abatacept or TNF inhibitors in patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis

  • Soojin Cha,
  • So-Young Bang,
  • Young Bin Joo,
  • Soo-Kyung Cho,
  • Chan-Bum Choi,
  • Yoon-Kyoung Sung,
  • Tae-Hwan Kim,
  • Jae-Bum Jun,
  • Dae Hyun Yoo,
  • Hye-Soon Lee,
  • Sang-Cheol Bae

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56987-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 6

Abstract

Read online

Abstract The strongest genetic risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been known as HLA-DRB1 based on amino acid positions 11, 71, and 74. This study analyzed the association between specific HLA-DRB1 locus and treatment response to abatacept or TNF inhibitors (TNFi) in patients with seropositive RA. A total of 374 Korean RA patients were treated with abatacept (n = 110) or TNFi (n = 264). Associations between HLA-DRB1 and treatment response after 6 months were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression. Seropositive RA patients with HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE) had a favorable response to abatacept (OR = 3.67, P = 0.067) and an inversely associated response to TNFi (OR 0.57, P = 0.058) based on EULAR response criteria, but the difference was not statistically significant in comparison to those without SE. In analyses using amino acid positions of HLA-DRB1, a significant association was found between valine at amino acid position 11 of SE and good response to abatacept (OR = 6.46, P = 5.4 × 10–3). The VRA haplotype also showed a good response to abatacept (OR = 4.56, P = 0.013), but not to TNFi. Our results suggest that treatment response to abatacept or TNFi may differ depending on HLA-DRB1 locus in seropositive RA, providing valuable insights for selecting optimal therapy.

Keywords