Evaluation of HLA Class I and Class II alleles in patients with extensive skin warts

Skin warts which are developped due to human papilloma virus (HPV) infections are benign epithelial proliferations with different clinical presentations. The role of genetic susceptibility and immunological mechanisms to eliminate the virus in HPV infections has not yet been fully elucidated. Human leucocyte antigens (HLAs) antigens have critical roles in host defense against pathogens. In our study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of HLA class I (HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C) and class II (HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQB1, and HLA-DQA1) alleles in patients with extensive skin warts, and to eluciate the role of these alleles on the development of warts. In this study, 100 patients with extensive skin warts and 100 healthy individuals who applied to our hospital as bone marrow donors were selected as the control group, peripheral venous blood samples were taken and HLA typing was performed after DNA isolation. Sixty-one (61%) patients had a family history of warts. When the wart localizations were evaluated, it was found in 29 (29%) patients in the genital area, 39 (39%) patients in the upper extremities, 21 (21%) patients in the head and neck and 31 (31%) patients in the lower extremities. One patient (1%) also had trunk and oral mucosa. A statistically significant difference was found for the B*38, B*40, B*44 and C*12 alleles in patients with extensive skin warts compared with healthy controls. In healthy controls, B*38, B*40, B*44 and C*12 alleles were found to be higher than the patient group (for B*38, p=0,025; OR:0,31; 95% CI, for B*40, p=0,046; OR:0,32; 95% CI, for B*44, p=0,029; OR:0,41; 95% CI and for C*12, p=0,0070; OR:0,49; 95% CI). DQA1*0103 allele was lower in the genital wart group compared to healthy controls (p = 0.049870; OR: 0.28; 95% CI). In our study, a risk allele could not be detected. However, HLA-B*38, B*40, B*44 and C*12 alleles were found to be protective against extensive skin warts and DQA1 * 0103 allele was found as protective allele against genital wart development.