Differences in immune control of HIV-1 infection are often attributable to the highly variable HLA class I molecules that present viral epitopes to CTL. In our immunogenetic analyses of 429 HIV-1 discordant Zambian couples (infected index partners paired with cohabiting seronegative partners), several HLA class I variants in index partners were associated with contrasting rates and incidence of...

BACKGROUND HLA-C locus products are poorly understood in part due to their low expression at the cell surface. Recent data indicate that these molecules serve as major restriction elements for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes. We report here a structure-based technique for the prediction of peptides binding to Cw*0401. The models were rigorously ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between SNP +39604 in SEEK1 and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in two distinct Canadian populations. METHODS 103 patients with PsA and 105 ethnically matched controls from Newfoundland and 202 patients with PsA and 100 controls from Ontario were studied. Patients and controls were genotyped for SNP +39604 of SEEK1 by time of flight mass spectrometry, using the...

In this study the authors analysed the distribution of HLA class II alleles and the extended haplotype HLA-Cw-B-DRB1DQA1-DQB1 in Croatian patients with type I and type II psoriasis by hybridization with specific oligonucleotide probes. Type I psoriasis showed a significant association with the DRB1*0701 (p<0.00001; relative risk/RR=5.83), DQA1*0201 (p<0.00001; RR=6.12), DQB1*0201 (p=0.0006; RR=...

BACKGROUND A high incidence of rash has been reported in HIV-1 patients who received the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine. In addition, several studies have suggested that polymorphisms of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes may play important roles in nevirapine-induced rash. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of different HLA-C alleles on rash associated with nevirapine i...

BACKGROUND During untreated, chronic HIV-1 infection, plasma viral load (VL) is a relatively stable quantitative trait that has clinical and epidemiological implications. Immunogenetic research has established various human genetic factors, especially human leukocyte antigen (HLA) variants, as independent determinants of VL set-point. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS To identify and clarify HLA...

A susceptibility gene for psoriasis, a chronic skin disorder, resides in chromosome 6p near the HLA-C locus. Sequencing of the region has allowed the identification of a new gene, HCR. We found that HCR is highly polymorphic with at least 12 coding variants. An association study of the new HCR polymorphisms and the previously suggested susceptibility alleles HLA-Cw*0602 and corneodesmosin allel...

HIV-1 specific HLA-B-restricted CD8+ T cell responses differ from HLA-C-restricted responses in antiviral effectiveness. To investigate possible reasons for these differences, we characterized the frequency and polyfunctionality of immmunodominant HLA-B*57/B5801- and HLA-Cw*07-restricted CD8+ T cells occurring concurrently in nine study subjects assessing IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, IL-2, MIP-1beta, ...

BACKGROUND Host immunogenetic factors such as HLA class I polymorphism are important to HIV-1 infection risk and AIDS progression. Previous studies using high-resolution HLA class I profile data of Chinese populations appeared insufficient to provide information for HIV-1 vaccine development and clinical trial design. Here we reported HLA class I association with HIV-1 susceptibility in a Chine...

In this study, polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific oligonucleotide prode (SSOP) typing results for the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I (A, B, and C) and class II (DRB1, DQA1, DQB1, and DPB1) loci in 264 individuals of the Han ethnic group from the Canton region of southern China are presented. The data are examined at the allele, genotype, and haplotype level. Common alleles at ea...