Valine 11 and phenylalanine 13 have a greater impact on the T-cell response to citrullinated peptides than the 70-74 shared epitope of the DRB1 molecule in macaques.

The absence of LD between Val11 and SE in macaques allowed us to demonstrate that the most important HLA positions to induce a T-cell response against Cit-P were Val11 and Phe13 and not the 70-74 SE.