In this cohort, SNP rs9271366 (tag SNP for HLA-DRB1*15:01) confers the highest risk for SLE among the 13 MHC gene alleles that display association with SLE (p = 8.748E-10; OR = 3.5).
The IRF5-TNPO3 region showed the strongest association and largest OR for SLE (rs10488631: genomic control-adjusted P [Pgcadj ] = 2.61 × 10(-29), OR 2.12 [95% CI 1.88-2.39]), followed by HLA class II on the DQA2-DQB1 loci (rs9275572: Pgcadj = 1.11 × 10(-16), OR 1.62 [95% CI 1.46-1.80] and rs9271366: Pgcadj = 6.46 × 10(-12), OR 2.06 [95% CI 1.71-2.50]).
Our findings suggest that in addition to some classical HLA variants, rs9271366 and rs9275328 are additional polymorphisms worth considering in the Malaysian and possibly in a larger Asian SLE scenario.