Correlation between HLA haplotypes and the development of antidrug antibodies in a cohort of patients with rheumatic diseases

Introduction The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between human leukocyte antigen (HLA) haplotypes and the development of antidrug antibodies (ADAs) in a cohort of patients with rheumatic diseases. Patients and methods We evaluated the presence of ADAs in 248 patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases after 6 months of treatment with anti-TNF drugs: 26 patients were treated with infliximab (IFX; three with rheumatoid arthritis [RA], 13 with ankylosing spondylitis [AS], 10 with psoriatic arthritis [PsA]); 83 treated with adalimumab (ADA; 24 with RA, 36 with AS, 23 with PsA); 88 treated with etanercept (ETA; 35 with RA, 27 with AS, 26 with PsA); 32 treated with certolizumab (CERT; 25 with RA, two with AS, five with PsA); and 19 treated with golimumab (GOL; three with RA, seven with AS, nine with PsA). Serum drug and ADA levels were determined using Lisa-Tracker Duo, the ADA-positive samples underwent an inhibition test, and the true-positive samples underwent genetic HLA typing. To have a homogeneous control population, we also performed genetic HLA typing of 11 ADA-negative patients. Results After inhibition test, the frequency of ADAs was 2/26 patients treated with IFX (7.69%), 4/83 treated with ADA (4.81%), 0/88 treated with ETA (0%), 4/32 treated with CERT (12.5%), and 1/19 treated with GOL (5.26%). The frequency of HLA alleles in the examined patients was HLA-DRβ-11 0.636, HLA-DQ-03 0.636, and HLA-DQ-05 0.727. The estimated relative risks between the ADA-positive patients and the ADA-negative patients were HLA-DRβ-11 2.528 (95% CI 0.336-19.036), HLA-DQ-03 1.750 (95% CI 0.289-10.581), and HLA-DQ-05 2.424 (95% CI 0.308-15.449). Conclusion This is the first study that shows an association between HLA and genetic factors associated with the occurrence of ADAs in patients with rheumatic diseases, but the number of samples is too small to draw any definite conclusion.