Study Identifies Allele Linked To Severe Ulcerative Colitis Risk

MedPage Today (10/15, DeBenedette) reports, “The presence of the single nucleotide variation HLA-DRB1*01:03 was associated with severe ulcerative colitis, according to a Danish genome-wide association study.” After testing over “9.5 million single nucleotide variations, the researchers found that one chromosome 6 locus in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region – HLA-DRB1*01:03 – was significantly associated with severe versus less severe ulcerative colitis.” The findings were published in JAMA. Healio (10/15, Burba) reports “the human leukocyte antigen DRB1*01:03 allele was” also associated with “greater odds for major operation, hospitalization and corticosteroid use.”