Antibody-defined epitopes on HLA-DQ alleles reacting with antibodies induced during pregnancy and the design of a DQ eplet map

作者：Duquesnoy Rene J^*; Honger Gideon; Hosli Irene; Marrari Marilyn; Schaub Stefan

来源：Human Immunology, 2016, 77(10): 824-831.

DOI：10.1016/j.humimm.2016.06.021

• HLA-DQ
• Epitope
• Eplet
• Pregnancy
• Antibody
• HLAMatchmaker

The concept that HLA antibodies recognize epitopes is leading to new approaches of HLA matching at the epitope level. HLA-DQ plays an important role and many studies have identified structurally defined DQ epitopes specifically recognized by antibodies; they have been recorded in the International HLA Epitope Registry http://www.epregistry.com.br but the list is still incomplete.
Pregnancy offers an attractive model to study antibody responses to HLA epitopes. The current analysis was done on 42 DQ-reactive post-pregnancy sera tested in binding assays with a panel of DQ heterodimers. The reactivity of 29 sera corresponded fully to the presence of antibody-verified DQA and DQB epitopes recorded in the Registry. Analysis of the remaining 13 sera led to the identification of additional antibody-defined DQB and DQA epitopes.
We have designed the first version of an eplet map for DQ alleles which includes antibody-defined DQA and DQB epitopes and shows sequence positions with polymorphic residues which can be used in HLA epitology studies to identify new antibody-defined DQ epitopes.

• 出版日期2016-10