Interaction of HLA-DRB1 Alleles with CTLA-4 in the Predisposition to Graves' Disease: The Impact of DRB1*07

Objective: To study interactions between the two most widely confirmed Graves’ disease (GD) loci: HLA-DRB1 and CTLA-4. HLA-DRB1^∗03 (risk allele) and DRB1^∗07 (protective allele) were analyzed in this aspect, the linked TNF G(-308)A polymorphism was also considered. Design: A case-control study of 429 patients with GD compared to 308 healthy subjects. The impact of genes and their interactions were analyzed by stepwise logistic regression.Results: The independent effects of DRB1^∗03 and DRB1^∗07 were confirmed in our study both by stratification studies and logistic regression. CTLA-4 did not appear to be associated with GD when the interactions with other genes were considered. By logistic regression we observed a significant interaction between DRB1^∗07 and CTLA-4 and revealed that CTLA-4 49G attenuated the DRB1^∗07-related protection, the effect noticed also in three-way stratification studies. We confirmed that the TNF G(–308)A polymorphism is only a marker of the DRB1 status. Conclusion: Our results stress the importance of complex gene interactions in the multigene predisposition to GD. The interactions between two predisposing loci, DRB1 and CTLA-4, are exerted rather by DRB1^∗07 than DRB1^∗03 allele: CTLA-4 acts via switching off the protective DRB1^∗07 influence, whereas the effect of DRB1^∗03 is independent.