#53-OR
HLA CLASS II IN INFECTIOUS DISEASE MODEL
S.
Patricia R. Vanderborght 1, Antonio G. Pacheco 3, Matilde Romero 2, Jose Roberto Moraes 2, Euzenir N. Sarno 1, Maria Elisa Moraes 2 and Milton O. Moraes 1. 1 Micobacterioses, FIOCRUZ - IOC, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil ; 2 Imunogenetica, INCA/HSE/MS, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil and 3 DEMQS, FIOCRUZ - ENSP, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil .
Leprosy, a chronic human disease, is the result of infection by Mycobacterium leprae. The HLA polymorphisms associations with infectious diseases have been extensively studied, although, data involving mycobacterioses infections, such as leprosy, are not conclusive.In this study we analyzed the distribution of HLA-DRB1 alleles in Brazilian leprosy patients in a case-control study. Low resolution HLA-DRB1 typing was performed by use of the INNO-LIPA assay, in leprosy patients (n= 579) and in the control group (n= 691) recruited in the same geographic area. All individuals were ascertained according to its ethnicity. All statistical analyses were carried out with R for Windows 2.0.1, including weighted logistical regression models for allele associations. Gender and ethnicity were used as co-variables in our models. The results have shown that the distribution of the HLA-DR allelic frequencies between cases and controls were similar. Although not statistically significant (OR= 1.33; 0.82-2.15; CI= 95%; p= 0.24), higher HLA-DRB*15 allelic frequencies in leprosy patients (0.15) were observed when compared to the control group (0.10). In contrary, a low HLA-DRB*04 allelic frequency was verified in patients (0.9) compared to controls (0.12), but no significance (OR= 0.66; 0.39-1.10; CI= 95%; p= 0.11) was found. These data suggest a kind of antagonism or a compensation level between HLA-DRB*15 and HLA-DRB*04 in leprosy disease. Therefore, the studies with other polymorphisms inside the HLA complex, such as HLA class III, could emphasize the influence of the genetics factors in this infectious disease.