| 2005 |
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| Polymorphisms of the HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 genes in Thai malaria
patients. |
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| Hananantachai, H., Patarapotikul, J., Ohashi, J., Naka, I., Looareesuwan, S., and Tokunaga, K.
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| Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand |
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| Abstract: 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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| Published in:Jpn.J.Infect.Dis. 58[1], 25-28. 2005. |
