HIV-1 Disease Association with HLA-DQ Antigens in African Americans and Caucasians

Previously, we have shown that CD4 levels in African Americans infected with human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) were lower than those in Caucasians. To determine whether or not HLA type is associated with susceptibility to HIV-1 infection, we demonstrated serologically that HLA-DQ6(1) and HLA-DQ7(3) were associated with HIV-1 infection in both African Americans and Caucasians. The present investigation was designed to demonstrate whether or not HLA-DQB1 alleles were associated with HIV-1 infection or protection from infection within these two ethnic groups. Oligonucleotide typing was employed and results were analyzed by χ2 with Fisher's exact test to compare HLA-DQ marker frequencies in the regional control population (98 African Americans, 143 Caucasians) to the disease population (n = 52; 30 African Americans and 22 Caucasians). We found a statistically significant increased risk of HIV infection associated with HLA-DQB 1*0605 in African Americans, and with HLA-DQB 1*0602 in Caucasians. By contrast, HLA-DQB 1*0603 was associated with protection in Caucasians.