Anti-NF155 chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy strongly associates to HLA-DRB15

Background: the aim of the research is to study the human leukocyte antigen (hla) class ii allele frequencies in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (cidp) associated with anti-neurofascin 155 (nf155) antibodies. methods: thirteen anti-nf155+ and 35 anti-nf155 negative (anti-nf155neg) cidp patients were included in a case-control study. the frequencies of the drb1 hla allele were analyzed in all patients while dq frequencies were only studied in patients sharing the drb1*15 allele. in silico hla-peptide binding and nf155 antigenicity,predictions were performed to analyze overlap between presented peptides and antigenic regions. results: drb1*15 alleles (drb1*15:01 and drb1*15:02) were present in 10 out of 13 anti-nf155+ cidp patients and in only 5 out of 35 anti-nf155neg cidp patients (77 vs 14%; or = 20,ci = 4.035 to 99.13). drb1*15 alleles appeared also in significantly higher proportions in anti-nf155+ cidp than in normal population (77 vs 17%; or = 16.9,ci = 4.434 to 57.30). seven anti-nf155+ cidp patients (53%) and 5 anti-nf155neg cidp patients had the drb1*15:01 allele (or = 7,p = 0.009),while 3 anti-nf155+ cidp patients and none of the anti-nf155neg cidp patients had the drb1*15:02 allele (or = 23.6,p = 0.016). in silico analysis of the nf155 peptides binding to drb1*15 alleles showed significant overlap in the peptides presented by the 15:01 and 15:02 alleles,suggesting functional homology. conclusions: drb1*15 alleles are the first strong risk factor associated to a cidp subset,providing additional evidence that anti-nf155+ cidp patients constitute a differentiated disease within the cidp syndrome. © 2017 the author(s).