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. 2020 Sep 3;17(1):29.
doi: 10.1186/s12977-020-00536-y.

HLA-B*35 as a new marker for susceptibility to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) Associated Myelopathy/Tropical Spastic Paraparesis (HAM/TSP) in patients living in Argentina

Paula Benencio  1 , Sindy A Fraile Gonzalez  1 , Nicolás Ducasa  1 , Kimberly Page  2   3 , Carolina A Berini  4 , Mirna M Biglione  1
Affiliations

HLA-B*35 as a new marker for susceptibility to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) Associated Myelopathy/Tropical Spastic Paraparesis (HAM/TSP) in patients living in Argentina

Paula Benencio et al. Retrovirology. .

Abstract

Background: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiological agent of HTLV associated myelopathy/ Tropical Spastic Paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and Adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), in around 2-5% of the infected individuals. Host genetic background might play a role in disease progression. Several previous studies across many countries report HLA haplotype to be one such factor. Here, we sequenced HLA-A, -B and -C of 66 individuals by Sequence-Based Typing (SBT), and compared the frequency of different alleles among ATLL patients, HAM/TSP patients, asymptomatic carriers and non-infected individuals living in Argentina.

Results: The frequency of HLA-A, -B and -C alleles largely matched that of the general population in Argentina. We identified HLA-A*02, HLA-B*35 and HLA-C*07 as associated to protection from ATLL (p = 0.031), susceptibility to HAM/TSP (p < 0.001) and susceptibility to ATLL (p = 0.017), respectively. We also found a strong correlation between high proviral load (PVL) and disease (p = 0.008), but were unable to identify any particular allele associated with high or low PVL.

Conclusions: We have found HLA-A*02, HLA-B*35 and HLA-C*07 to be associated to protection from ATLL (HLA-A*02) and susceptibility to HAM/TSP (HLA-B*35) or to ATLL (HLA-C*07), respectively. Whereas HLA-A*02 protection from ATLL has already been extensively described in other regions of the world, this is the first report that links HLA-B*35 and an increased susceptibility to HAM/TSP. As for HLA-C*07 it has previously been associated to susceptibility to HAM/TSP in other countries but in our population it has been linked to ATLL.

Keywords: ARGENTINA; ATLL; HAM/TSP; HLA; HTLV-1; PVL.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Demographic characteristics of the studied population. a Distribution by gender. b Distribution by age range. c Distribution by region of derivation. d Distribution by province/country of birth
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Allele distribution in the different subgroups. a Distribution of HLA-A in the 4 subgroups: non-infected individuals (NII), HTLV-1 asymptomatic carriers (AC), patients with Adult T-cell leukemia/ lymphoma (ATLL) and patients with HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/ Tropical Spastic Paraparesis (HAM/TSP). b Distribution of HLA-B in the 4 subgroups: NII, AC, ATLL and HAM/TSP. c Distribution of HLA-C in the 4 subgroups: NII, AC, ATLL and HAM/TSP
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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