ERBB3-rs2292239 as primary type 1 diabetes association locus among non-HLA genes in Chinese

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease that has strong contribution of genetic factors to its etiology. We aimed to assess the genetic association between non-HLA genes and T1D in a Chinese case-control cohort recruited from multiple centers consisting of 364 patients with T1D and 719 unrelated healthy children. We genotyped 55 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers located in 16 non-HLA genes (VTCN1, PTPN22, CTLA4, SUMO4, CD274, IL2RA, INS, DHCR7, ERBB3, VDR, CYP27B1, CD69, CD276, PTPN2, UBASH3A, and IL2RB) using SNaPshot multiple single-base extension methods. After multivariate analysis and correction for multiple comparisons, we identified the SNP rs2292239 in ERBB3 gene were significantly associated with T1D. The frequency of the major G allele was significantly decreased in patients with T1D (68.8% in T1D vs 77.3% in controls, OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.53-0.79, P = 0.02), and the minor allele T was associated with an increased risk of T1D (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.26-1.90, P = 0.02). Our haplotype analysis confirmed that rs2292239 was the primary T1D association locus in our current investigation. These results indicated that the ERBB3-rs2292239 was the primary T1D association locus among the investigated 55 SNPs in 16 non-HLA genes in Chinese Han population.