Epidemiological and genetic correlates of Chlamydia trachomatis infection were examined prospectively in 124 male and 361 female adolescents at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. Seventy percent of subjects were African American, and 68% had HIV-1 infection. As expected, younger age (<17 years), multiple sex partners (> or =2), and prior chlamydial infection pr...

We recently identified several Ags recognized by tumor-infiltrating B lymphocyte-derived Ab using SCID mice and a xenografted non-small cell lung cancer system. One of these identified Ags was mutated p53 with a point mutation resulting in the alteration of codon 158 from Arg to Leu. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether cellular immunity against mutated p53 exists in the same patient ...

Evaluation of: Liu Y, Helms C, Liao W et al. A genome-wide association study of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis identifies new disease loci. PLoS Genet. 4, e1000041 (2008). Genome-wide association scans have delivered on their promise of revealing susceptibility polymorphisms underlying common diseases. This comprehensive psoriasis study by Liu and colleagues reports confirmation of previousl...

Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) and their HLA ligands interact to regulate natural killer (NK) cell function. KIR gene content and allelic variations are reported to influence human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection and pathogenesis. We investigated the impact of KIR genes on heterosexual HIV-1 transmission among 566 discordant couples from Lusaka, Zambia. KIR2DS4*001, t...

Abstract HLA class I molecules that represent ligands for the inhibitory killer cell Ig-like receptor (KIR) 3DL1 found on NK cells are categorically defined as those HLA-A and HLA-B allotypes containing Bw4 motif, yet KIR3DL1 demonstrates hierarchical recognition of these HLA-Bw4 ligands. To better understand molecular basis underpinning differential recognition, HLA-ABw4 family were investigat...

Background: Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G is a nonclassical HLA class I molecule with modulatory effects on NK and T cells. Because HLA-G expression is frequently detected in different solid tumors, it may be involved in tumor immune evasion. Objective: This study was designed to elucidate the prognostic value of HLA-G in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PADC). Th...

Objective(s): The population in Iran is a genetic admixture of the ancestral Aryan and other populations neighboring Iran. Different ethnic groups in Iran show wide regional distributions for many human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles. Therefore, it is necessary and sensible to study the differences in HLA allele distribution in different area. We studied the HLA class I and II allele frequenci...