Lack of associations between HLA class II alleles and resistance to HIV-1 infection among white, non-Hispanic homosexual men

Human leucocyte antigen class II DRB1 and DQB1 associations in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients of Mumbai, India

The pathogenesis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection clearly involves immunoregulatory host factors and products of major histocompatibility complex class II genes, which present antigenic peptides to the T-cell receptor on CD4+ cells, which in turn increase the production of specific antibodies and cytotoxic T lymphocytes. The main objective of this study was to determine the associations of human leucocyte antigen (HLA) DRB1 and DQB1 alleles and their haplotypes in 210 HIV-1-infected patients and compare them with 129 healthy normal individuals with same ethnic background. The HLA DRB1 and DQB1 alleles were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction product and sequence-specific probes for reverse line hybridization, analysed with the Invitrogen Dynal PMP software. Our results revealed a highly significant increase of HLA DRB1*0902 [odds ratio (OR) = 17.12; P = 0.004], DQB1*030103 (OR = 53.53; P = 4.61E-07) and DQB1*050201 (OR = 16.26; P = 0.0002) alleles while in contrast highly significant decrease in frequency of HLA DQB1*030101 (OR = 0.36; P = 0.0002), DQB1*050301 (OR = 0.22; P < 0.0001) and DQB1*060101 (OR = 0.43; P < 0.0001) among the HIV-1-infected patients when compared with the controls. The haplotype DRB1*0902-DQB1*030103 (OR = 10.65; P = 0.06) was significantly increased in HIV1 patients, while haplotypes DRB1*150101-DQB1*060101 (OR = 0.386, P < 0.0001), DRB1*030101-DQB1*020101 (OR = 0.197, P = 0.004) and DRB1*070101-DQB1*0202 (OR = 0.167, P = 0.001) were significantly decreased. Our results indicate clearly that there are HLA class II alleles involved in the susceptibility to and protection from HIV-1 infection in our study group and further they vary in different ethnic groups reported in literature.

Sexual transmission of HIV-1

HIV-1 transmission occurs in a limited number of ways all of which are preventable. Overall, the risk of HIV-1 transmission following a single sexual exposure is low especially in comparison with other sexually transmitted infections (STIs); with estimates of the average probability of male to female HIV-1 transmission only 0.0005-0.0026 per coital act. The risk of acquiring HIV-1 from a single contact varies enormously and is dependant upon the infectiousness of the HIV-1 positive individual and the susceptibility to HIV-1 of their sexual partner. An understanding of the determinants of HIV-1 transmission is important not only to assess the infection risk to an individual when exposed to the virus (e.g. to determine the provision of post exposure prophylaxis), but also to make accurate predictions on the potential spread of HIV-1 infection in a population and to direct appropriate targeted prevention strategies. In this review article we summarise the current literature on the major worldwide source of HIV-1 acquisition, sexual transmission. This article forms part of a special issue of Antiviral Research marking the 25th anniversary of antiretroviral drug discovery and development, Vol 85, issue 1, 2010.

HLA-DQB1 and -DPB1 allele profile in HIV infected patients with and without pulmonary tuberculosis of south India

We made an attempt to find out whether Human Leucocyte Antigen (HLA)-DQB1 and -DPB1 alleles are associated with susceptibility or resistance to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and development of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in HIV infected patients. The allelic profile of HLA-DQB1 and -DPB1 was studied among HIV patients without pulmonary tuberculosis (HIV+PTB-) (n = 115), HIV patients with pulmonary TB (HIV+PTB+) (n = 59), HIV negative PTB patients (HIV-PTB+) (n = 110) and healthy controls (n=112) by polymerase chain reaction and sequence specific oligonucleotide probe method. Increased frequency of HLA-DQB1*050301 was observed in HIV+PTB- [p = 0.024, Odds Ratio (OR) 2.30, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.11-4.90] and HIV+PTB+ patients (p = 0.044, OR 2.41, 95% CI 1.01-5.73) compared to healthy controls, suggesting that DQB1*050301 may be associated with susceptibility to HIV infection as well as development of PTB in HIV patients. Underrepresentation of HLA-DPB1*1501 was observed in HIV-PTB+ (p = 0.002, Pc = 0.034) and HIV+PTB+ (p = 0.036) patients compared to healthy controls, suggesting that DPB1*1501 may be associated with protection against PTB development both in HIV positive and negative subjects. Analysis on the amino acid variation in the peptide binding pocket at beta69 position of HLA-DPB1 molecules revealed that the beta69 arginine containing HLA-DPB1 alleles and the genotype lysine/arginine were underrepresented in HIV-PTB+ (allele: p = 0.003, Pc = 0.009; genotype: p = 0.0002, Pc = 0.001) and HIV+PTB+ (allele: p = 0.016, Pc = 0.048; genotype: p = 0.026). This suggests that HLA-DPB1 alleles with arginine may be associated with protection against development of PTB in both HIV infected as well as uninfected individuals. Further, the haplotypes HLA-DRB1*1502-DPB1*0201 and HLA-DQB1*0601-DPB1*0201 (Pc < 0.001) and HLA-DRB1*1502-DQB1*0601-DPB1*0201 (p = 0.006, OR 5.09, 95% CI 1.42-22.66) were significantly overrepresented in HIV+PTB+ patients compared to healthy controls suggesting that genetic susceptibility to PTB development in HIV patients may be modulated by interplay between HLA class II alleles, besides HLA class I alleles.

The role of human leukocyte antigen class I polymorphism in HIV/AIDS

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Polymorphism at human leukocyte antigen class I loci accounts for a portion of the individual variability in susceptibility to, and evolution of, HIV-1 infection. Evaluation of the impact of class I polymorphism has improved, with refined techniques for genotyping, quantifying peptide binding characteristics of class I molecules, and measuring cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses.

RECENT FINDINGS

Most class I alleles that are particularly advantageous or disadvantageous in controlling HIV/AIDS are human leukocyte antigen-B locus products. Some act more uniformly than others, across racial and viral subtype boundaries, and different alleles may exert their effects at different times during the course of infection. Disease progression may be retarded by alleles of less common supertypes. The virus mutates to escape host pressure exerted by class 1 programmed cytotoxic T lymphocytes, and may or may not revert to its earlier form, depending on the toll taken on its replication capacity.

SUMMARY

Large virologically and immunologically well defined cohorts will be critical for increasingly comprehensive evaluation of the multiple small effects conferred by these highly polymorphic loci. Elucidating these effects at the population, clinical, cellular, and molecular levels poses a formidable challenge, but the reward could be vaccine constructs customized to the genetic profiles of individual populations, along with more effective individualized therapeutic intervention.