Evidence that the HLA DQA1*03 allele confers protection from chronic HCV-infection in Northern European Caucasoids

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Abstract
In the search for factors which may influence susceptibility to and outcome from chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, few studies have considered the influence of host genes. In the present investigation we have performed HLA DRB1, DQA1, DQB1, and DPB1 genotyping on 104 northern European patients with chronic HCV infection and 177 racially and geographically matched controls. Three HLA class II alleles, DRB1*0403, DQA1*03, and DQB1*0302 were present at a significantly lower frequency in patients compared with controls (4.9% vs. 13%, 20.7% vs. 41.2%, and 11.4% vs. 30.5%, respectively) though only two DQB1*0302 and DQA1*03 were significant after correction for multiple testing (pc = 0.038, and pc = 0.046, respectively). No further HLA associations with chronic HCV infection were observed and there was no correlation between stage of disease and HLA genotype. These data provide the first suggestion that susceptibility to chronic HCV infection may be influenced by the hosts' HLA DQ alleles.

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