Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 58, 25-28, 2005
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Original Article
Polymorphisms of the HLA-B and HLA-DRB1
Genes in Thai Malaria Patients
Hathairad Hananantachai, Jintana Patarapotikul, Jun Ohashi1*, Izumi Naka1,
Sornchai Looareesuwan and Katsushi Tokunaga1
Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok,
Thailand and 1Department of Human
Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo,
Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
(Received July 1, 2004. Accepted October 8, 2004)
*Corresponding author: Mailing address: Department of Human
Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo,
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. Tel: +81-3-5841-3693,
Fax: +81-3-5802-8619, E-mail: juno-tky@umin.ac.jp
SUMMARY: The high degree of polymorphism of human leukocyte
antigen (HLA) genes has been suggested to result from natural
selection against susceptibility to a variety of infectious pathogens,
including malaria. HLA molecules are considered to play a crucial
role in the defense of the host against malarial infection, and
different HLA class I and class II alleles have been reported
to be associated with reduced susceptibility to malaria or the
severity of malaria in different populations. To test for associations
between HLA alleles and the severity of malaria in a Thai
population, polymorphisms of HLA-B and HLA-DRB1
genes were investigated in 472 adult patients in northwest Thailand
with Plasmodium falciparum malaria. In this study, malaria
patients were classified into three groups: mild malaria, non-cerebral
severe malaria, and cerebral malaria. Our results revealed that
the allele frequencies of HLA-B46, -B56, and -DRB1*1001
were statistically different between non-cerebral severe malaria
and cerebral malaria (P = 0.005), between mild malaria
and cerebral malaria (P = 0.032), and between mild malaria
and non-cerebral malaria (P = 0.007). However, our results
may be showing false positives due to multiple testing. Thus,
further study with a larger sample size must be conducted to obtain
conclusive evidence of the association of these HLA-B and
DRB1 alleles with the severity of malaria in Thailand.
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