Hepatitis B virus genotype, mutations, human leukocyte antigen polymorphisms and their interactions in hepatocellular carcinoma: a multi-centre case-control study.

Wen J1,2, Song C1, Jiang D3,4,5, Jin T6,7, Dai J1, Zhu L1,8, An J9, Liu Y1,10, Ma S11, Qin N1, Liang C1, Chen J1, Jiang Y1, Yang L12, Liu J12, Liu L13, Geng T7,Chen C6,7, Jiang J8, Chen J14,15, Zhu F8, Zhu Y8, Yu L3, Shen H1, Zhai X8, Xu J3,4,5,16, Hu Z1,17.

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Abstract

Three genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been conducted on the genetic susceptibility of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), two of which consistently identified tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) around HLA-DQ/DR. In contrast, large multi-centre association studies between HBV genotype, mutations and the risk of HCC are relatively rare, and their interactions with host variants are even less. We performed a multi-centre study of 1,507 HBV-related HCC cases and 1,560 HBV persistent carriers as controls to evaluate the effects of HBV genotype, mutations, GWAS-identified HLA-DQ/DR SNPs (rs9272105 and rs9275319) and their interactions on HCC risk. We found HBV genotype C was more frequent in HBV-related HCC. And 11 HBV hotspot mutations were independently and significantly associated with HCC risk. We also detected significant interactions of rs9272105 with both the HBV genotype and mutations. Through stepwise regression analysis, HBV genotype, the 11 mutations, HLA-DQ/DR SNPs, and the interaction of rs9272105 with mutation A1752G were all entered into the HCC prediction model, and the area under the curve for the panel including the HLA-DQ/DR SNPs, HBV genotype and mutations was 0.840. The HBV genotype, the mutations and the HLA-DQ/DR SNPs may serve as biomarkers for the surveillance of HBV persistent carriers.