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Review
. 2009 Apr;22(2):370-85, Table of Contents.
doi: 10.1128/CMR.00048-08.

HLA and infectious diseases

Jenefer M Blackwell  1 , Sarra E Jamieson, David Burgner
Affiliations
Review

HLA and infectious diseases

Jenefer M Blackwell et al. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2009 Apr.

Abstract

Following their discovery in the early 1970s, classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci have been the prototypical candidates for genetic susceptibility to infectious disease. Indeed, the original hypothesis for the extreme variability observed at HLA loci (H-2 in mice) was the major selective pressure from infectious diseases. Now that both the human genome and the molecular basis of innate and acquired immunity are understood in greater detail, do the classical HLA loci still stand out as major genes that determine susceptibility to infectious disease? This review looks afresh at the evidence supporting a role for classical HLA loci in susceptibility to infectious disease, examines the limitations of data reported to date, and discusses current advances in methodology and technology that will potentially lead to greater understanding of their role in infectious diseases in the future.

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Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Diagrammatic view of the locations of genes encoding classical HLA class I (HLA-A, -B, -C, -E, -F, and -G) and class II (DR, DQ, DP, and DM) molecules in relation to other candidate immune response genes (class III region, as well as TAP genes within the class II region) mentioned in this review or in Tables S1 to S7 in the supplemental material. A complete picture of all the genes now annotated for the MHC (73) is provided at http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v5/n12/poster/MHCmap/poster.pdf.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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