Major histocompatibility complex genotype is associated with disease progression and virus load levels in a cohort of human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected Caucasians and African Americans

To assess the influence of HLA on AIDS-free survival, human immunodeficienc y virus load, and CD4 cell counts, 91 Caucasian and 48 African-American ser oprevalent men were typed for HLA classes I and II and TAP alleles, HLA ass ociations with these markers were assessed by assigning sum integer scores based on 7 class I allele-TAP variants (+1) and 13 class I-class II-TAP com binations (-1) with different AIDS-free survival times found in a prior stu dy. Subjects in both racial groups and combined with positive sum scores we re less likely to have CD4 cell decline (P =.0004), to have increased virus burden (P =.014), and to develop AIDS (P =.034) in the follow-up period th an were Caucasians and African Americans with scores of 0 or - 1, These res ults confirm the reported associations of specific major histocompatibility complex genes with AIDS-free survival time in Caucasians and specifically extend them to African Americans and to two established markers of disease progression.