Major histocompatibility complex genomics and human disease.

Over several decades, various forms of genomic analysis of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) have been extremely successful in picking up many disease associations. This is to be expected, as the MHC region is one of the most gene-dense and polymorphic stretches of human DNA. It also...

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Main Authors: Trowsdale, J, Knight, J
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2013
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author Trowsdale, J
Knight, J
author_facet Trowsdale, J
Knight, J
author_sort Trowsdale, J
collection OXFORD
description Over several decades, various forms of genomic analysis of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) have been extremely successful in picking up many disease associations. This is to be expected, as the MHC region is one of the most gene-dense and polymorphic stretches of human DNA. It also encodes proteins critical to immunity, including several controlling antigen processing and presentation. Single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) imputation now permit the screening of large sample sets, a technique further facilitated by high-throughput sequencing. These methods promise to yield more precise contributions of MHC variants to disease. However, interpretation of MHC-disease associations in terms of the functions of variants has been problematic. Most studies confirm the paramount importance of class I and class II molecules, which are key to resistance to infection. Infection is likely driving the extreme variation of these genes across the human population, but this has been difficult to demonstrate. In contrast, many associations with autoimmune conditions have been shown to be specific to certain class I and class II alleles. Interestingly, conditions other than infections and autoimmunity are also associated with the MHC, including some cancers and neuropathies. These associations could be indirect, owing, for example, to the infectious history of a particular individual and selective pressures operating at the population level.
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spelling oxford-uuid:a1234668-73d1-482e-8ff3-61329dc8eb4e2022-03-27T02:10:47ZMajor histocompatibility complex genomics and human disease.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:a1234668-73d1-482e-8ff3-61329dc8eb4eEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2013Trowsdale, JKnight, JOver several decades, various forms of genomic analysis of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) have been extremely successful in picking up many disease associations. This is to be expected, as the MHC region is one of the most gene-dense and polymorphic stretches of human DNA. It also encodes proteins critical to immunity, including several controlling antigen processing and presentation. Single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) imputation now permit the screening of large sample sets, a technique further facilitated by high-throughput sequencing. These methods promise to yield more precise contributions of MHC variants to disease. However, interpretation of MHC-disease associations in terms of the functions of variants has been problematic. Most studies confirm the paramount importance of class I and class II molecules, which are key to resistance to infection. Infection is likely driving the extreme variation of these genes across the human population, but this has been difficult to demonstrate. In contrast, many associations with autoimmune conditions have been shown to be specific to certain class I and class II alleles. Interestingly, conditions other than infections and autoimmunity are also associated with the MHC, including some cancers and neuropathies. These associations could be indirect, owing, for example, to the infectious history of a particular individual and selective pressures operating at the population level.
spellingShingle Trowsdale, J
Knight, J
Major histocompatibility complex genomics and human disease.
title Major histocompatibility complex genomics and human disease.
title_full Major histocompatibility complex genomics and human disease.
title_fullStr Major histocompatibility complex genomics and human disease.
title_full_unstemmed Major histocompatibility complex genomics and human disease.
title_short Major histocompatibility complex genomics and human disease.
title_sort major histocompatibility complex genomics and human disease
work_keys_str_mv AT trowsdalej majorhistocompatibilitycomplexgenomicsandhumandisease
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