Native American ancestry significantly contributes to neuromyelitis optica susceptibility in the admixed Mexican population.

ABSTRACT: Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) is an autoimmune disease with a higher prevalence in non-European populations. Because the Mexican population resulted from the admixture between mainly Native American and European populations, we used genome-wide microarray, HLA high-resolution typing and AQP4 gene sequencing data to analyze genetic ancestry and to seek genetic variants conferring NMO susceptibility in admixed Mexican patients. A total of 164 Mexican NMO patients and 1,208 controls were included. On average, NMO patients had a higher proportion of Native American ancestry than controls (68.1% vs 58.6%; p = 5 × 10^-6). GWAS identified a HLA region associated with NMO, led by rs9272219 (OR = 2.48, P = 8 × 10^-10). Class II HLA alleles HLA-DQB1*03:01, -DRB1*08:02, -DRB1*16:02,

SUBMITTER: Romero-Hidalgo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7426416 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature