Association analysis of HLA-class II and class III gene polymorphisms in the susceptibility to mediterranean visceral leishmaniasis

HLA-DRD1, -DQD1, TNF alpha, TNF beta, HSP70-2 and HSP70-hom genetic polymor phisms mere analyzed in 156 unrelated patients who developed mediterranean visceral leishmaniasis (MVL) due to Leishmania infantum, and 154 unrelated healthy controls, who have got asymptomatic infection with this parasite an d were selected on the basis of a positive leishmanin skin test (LST. A sig nificantly reduced frequency of HLA-DR2 was observed among MVL patients (16 .1%), compared with controls (26.3%) (relative risk = 0.54; P = 0.04). HLA- DR2/DR13 as well as HLA-DQDB1*201/- genotype frequencies were significantly lower in patients vs controls (relapse race = 0.17 and 0.46, respectively; p < 0.05). However, using Bonferroni correction, none of these association s remained significant. No association was found, between either the -308 b ase pair TNF<alpha> gene polymorphism or the Ncol polymorphism in the first intron of the TNF beta gene and susceptibility to MVL. Analysis of PstI an d Ncol polymorphisms in the coding region of HSP70-2 and HSP70-hom genes, r espectively, revealed a significantly higher frequency of homozygotes for t he HSP70-2/PstI negative allele, among patients (21.8%) vs controls (12.6%) (relapse rate = 1.94; p, = 0.04). Again, this result was nor significant a fter using Bonferroni correction. These results do not support association between susceptibility to MVL and the MHC class II and class III loci analy zed in this study. (C) American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunoge netics, 2001. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.