The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) is a complex genetic system that encodes proteins which predominantly regulate immune/inflammatory processes. It can be involved in a variety of immuno-inflammatory disorders ranging from infections to autoimmunity and cancers. The HLA system is also suggested to be involved in neurodevelopment and neuroplasticity, especially through microglia regulation and synaptic pruning. Consequently, this highly polymorphic gene region has recently emerged as a major player in the etiology of several major psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder and bipolar disorder and with less evidence for major depressive disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. We thus review here the role of HLA genes in particular subgroups of psychiatric disorders and foresee their potential implication in future research. In particular, given the prominent role that the HLA system plays in the regulation of viral infection, this review is particularly timely in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

中文翻译：

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了解人类白细胞抗原系统对世界大流行背景下常见主要精神疾病的遗传贡献


人类白细胞抗原 (HLA) 是一个复杂的遗传系统，编码主要调节免疫/炎症过程的蛋白质。它可能涉及多种免疫炎症性疾病，从感染到自身免疫和癌症。 HLA 系统也被认为参与神经发育和神经可塑性，特别是通过小胶质细胞调节和突触修剪。因此，这个高度多态性的基因区域最近已成为几种主要精神疾病病因学的主要参与者，例如精神分裂症、自闭症谱系障碍和双相情感障碍，而关于严重抑郁症和注意力缺陷多动障碍的证据较少。因此，我们在此回顾 HLA 基因在精神疾病特定亚组中的作用，并预见它们在未来研究中的潜在意义。特别是，鉴于 HLA 系统在病毒感染调节中发挥的突出作用，本次审查在 Covid-19 大流行的背景下显得尤为及时。