DNA HLA-DRB1 analysis in children of positive mothers and estimated risk of vertical HIV transmission

Abstract

RFLP HLA-DRB1 analysis was performed on a total of 83 children born from HIV-infected mothers, 35 of whom were shown to be HIV-infected, while 48 reverted from seropositivity to seronegativity, indicating that they were not infected. Moreover, 89 healthy children were used as controls. It has been found that DRB1-14a and DRB1-13a.4 alleles were not present in the HIV-infected children, but were found in the sero-reverted (HIV-uninfected) children (in the proportion of 9.6 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively), and in the controls (5.6 per cent and 3.9 per cent, respectively). The possible correlation between DR and risk of HIV transmission from mother to baby was analysed considering every single allele, estimated by the ratio between the number of infected children and the number of all children born from seropositive mothers. There was also introduced a statistic G for the control of 'statistical validity' of data.