Associations between human leukocyte antigens and leprosy in the Turkish population

Abstract

Leprosy is a chronic infection caused by an intracellular microorganism. Genetic predisposition to both disease susceptibility and to host immunological response has been postulated for many years. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is HLA-linked susceptibility to leprosy and its different types. HLA-class I (A, B, C) and II (DR, DQ) antigen frequencies in 80 patients with leprosy (35 borderline lepromatous, 25 lepromatous, 15 borderline tuberculoid, five tuberculoid) were compared with those in 120 healthy individuals. HLA-class I antigens A9, A10, A32, B5, B21, Bw4, Bw6, Cw1, Cw2 and HLA-class II antigens DR9, DR10, DRw52, DQ1, DQ3 were found to be significantly more frequent in patients with leprosy, whereas HLA-class I antigens A3, B44, B49 and HLA-class II antigen DQ5 were so in controls. However, there was no significant difference in HLA-class I and II antigen frequencies between subtypes of leprosy. HLA-A null antigen was found to have weak expression in patients with leprosy. In conclusion, factors other than HLA-class I and class II antigens may have a more critical role in the pathophysiology of leprosy infection in man.

Novel HLA Class I Alleles Associated with Indian Leprosy Patients

“…Increased frequencies of HLA A2, A11, B40, and DR2 were observed among the leprosy patients from South India [23]. Recently, HLA A9, A10, A32, B5, B21, Bw4, Bw6, Cw1, and Cw2 were found to be significantly more frequent among Turkish leprosy patients [24]. In all these earlier studies, the HLA were determined by conventional techniques that might have resulted in a lower resolution of HLA types.…”

Association of HLA-DRB1*0405 with resistance to multibacillary leprosy in Taiwanese

“…Few studies reported association of leprosy with HLA-A and B [8,9,25,26]. Interestingly, one of these studies showed significantly decreased of B‫64ء‬ in multibacillary patients from southern Chinese (OR ϭ 0.28, p Ͻ 0.01) but not in paucibacillary patients [26].…”

Human Polymorphisms as Clinical Predictors in Leprosy

“…HLA-class I antigens A9, A10, A32, B5, B21, Bw4, Bw6, Cw1, Cw2, and HLA-class II antigens DR9, DR10, DRw52, DQ1, DQ3 were associated with leprosy. HLA-class I antigens A3, B44, B49, and HLA-class II antigen DQ5 were found protective in a Turkish population [51]. HLA-B46 allele and HLAB46/MICA-A5 haplotype protects against MB leprosy in Chinese population [52].…”