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Impact of HLA-B leader matching on clinical outcomes after haploidentical transplantation using antithymocyte globulin-based conditioning

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 58, pages 94–96 (2023)Cite this article

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Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo-HSCT) has been increasingly used to treat hematologic diseases in the past 10 years [1]. Considerable attention has been directed towards identifying a high-risk HLA mismatch pattern to avoid factors detrimental to HSCT outcomes. However, whether the HLA-B leader matching status could differentially influence clinical outcomes in haplo-HSCT with antithymocyte globulin (ATG) has yet to be elucidated. This study sought to evaluate the role of HLA-B leader in haplo-HSCT with ATG, which may facilitate optimization of donor selection.

The HLA-B gene is the most polymorphic HLA class I gene and consists of seven exons, with exon 1 encoding a leader peptide with either methionine (M) or threonine (T) at the second residue of the processed leader peptide [2, 3]. Peptides derived from HLA-B leader sequence can bind to HLA-E to stabilize surface expression of HLA-E and inhibit NK and CD8+ T cells through NKG2A/CD94 receptor [4, 5]. To better understand the significance of HLA-B leader in haplo-HSCT with ATG, we conducted a single-center retrospective analysis of 570 patients who received haplo-HSCT for the treatment of hematological malignancies between Sep, 2012 and May, 2021. The exclusion criteria and definition of clinical outcomes for the study are described in the Supplementary File.

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Fig. 1: Impact of HLA-B leader on clinical outcomes.

Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 82170217 to AP, No. 82070192 and No. 81670171 to EJ), Haihe Laboratory of Cell Ecosystem Innovation Fund (No. HH22KYZX0034 to EJ), Fundamental Research Funds for the central universities (No. 3332020052 to YC), CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (No. 2021-I2M-1-073 to AP), and Key Project of Tianjin Natural Science Foundation (No. 20JCZDJC00410 to AP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, National Clinical Research Center for Blood Diseases, Haihe Laboratory of Cell Ecosystem, Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, 300020, China

    Mingyang Wang, Wenwen Guo, Xinhui Zheng, Jiali Wang, Jia Liu, Yigeng Cao, Rongli Zhang, Xin Chen, Weihua Zhai, Qiaoling Ma, Jialin Wei, Yong Huang, Donglin Yang, Yi He, Aiming Pang, Sizhou Feng, Mingzhe Han & Erlie Jiang

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  1. Mingyang Wang
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  18. Erlie Jiang
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Contributions

MW performed the research and analyzed the data. MW, WG, XZ, JW, JL, and YC collected patient demographics and transplantation data. RZ, XC, YH, WZ, QM, JW, and YH obtained follow-up clinical information. DY and AP supervised the study. MW, SF, EJ, and MH designed the research and wrote the paper. All authors edited and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erlie Jiang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wang, M., Guo, W., Zheng, X. et al. Impact of HLA-B leader matching on clinical outcomes after haploidentical transplantation using antithymocyte globulin-based conditioning. Bone Marrow Transplant 58, 94–96 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-022-01842-z

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