Psoriasis

HLA-C*06:02

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with an autoimmune component. The strongest genetic risk factor lies in the HLA region: HLA-C*06:02, the core of the so-called PSORS1 locus. It is particularly linked to the early-onset form.

The PSORS1 locus

HLA-C*06:02 is the best-documented risk allele within PSORS1, the most important susceptibility region of psoriasis. The class I molecule presumably presents peptides that activate autoreactive T cells in the skin. Thus a single HLA type links predisposition, disease onset and partly the response to therapy.

Context

As with the other HLA associations: elevated risk, not certainty. Environment, further genes and triggers such as infections contribute. Genome shows the HLA type as technical evidence, not as a diagnosis.

What Genome measures. Whether HLA-C*06:02 is present in the HLA class I typing, as the most important genetic risk context of psoriasis.

Related topics

HLA and autoimmunityHLA typing

Sources

  1. 1Nair et al., 2006 Sequence and haplotype analysis supports HLA-C as the psoriasis susceptibility 1 gene. American Journal of Human Genetics 78:827–851. doi.org/10.1086/503821
  2. 2Chen & Tsai, 2018 HLA-Cw6 and psoriasis. British Journal of Dermatology 178:854–862. doi.org/10.1111/bjd.16083