Association of HLA Diversity With All-Cause Mortality in PLCO

Principal Investigator

Name
Zhiwei Liu

Degrees
Ph.D.

Institution
National Cancer Institute

Position Title
Tenure-Track Investigator

Email
zhiwei.liu@nih.gov

About this CDAS Project

Study
PLCO (Learn more about this study)

Project ID
PLCO-1227

Initial CDAS Request Approval
May 30, 2023

Title
Association of HLA Diversity With All-Cause Mortality in PLCO

Summary
We hypothesize that greater diversity in HLA loci could protect against infections and de novo mutations (heterozygosity advantage hypothesis) by resulting in a higher probability of a robust cytotoxic T lymphocyte response to pathogens and tumor neoantigens. Therefore, individuals with lower diversity in HLA loci could be more likely to have higher all-cause mortality compared to those with greater diversity in HLA loci. However, to our knowledge, the association between HLA diversity and all-cause mortality remains unclear. To test our hypothesis, we propose to utilize GWAS data from individuals of European ancestry to study the association of the similarity of HLA alleles (including zygosity and evolutionary divergence) with all-cause mortality.

Aims

We aim to examine the association of the similarity of HLA alleles (including zygosity and evolutionary divergence) with all-cause mortality.

Collaborators

Ruth Pfeiffer, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute