Chronic Beryllium Disease --going beyond HLA-DPB1?

I have been working for several years with a doctor who does research with chronic beryllium disease (CBD). If you recall from our notes, this is a disease which is caused by inhalation of beryllium dust and an immune response which leads to granuloma formation in the lung. There is a known association between certain HLA-DPB1 alleles and CBD and we are always looking for ways to better understand what this means. The article “Electrostatic Potential on Human Leukocyte Antigen: Implications for Putative Mechanism and Chronic Beryllium Disease” describes how the authors constructed structural models of HLA-DP representing several distinct allotypes and how they calculated the electrostatic potential on the surface of these models. They determine that the higher the negative charge for the HLA-DPB1 alleles the more likely that the person would have chronic beryllium disease. These charges are then related back to certain alleles. I guess I have a question for anyone who may be reading this: Does the electrostatic charge give you any new meaningful information?

The article's link in PubMed.