Association of HLA-DRB1*14 with rheumatic heart disease patients from Chandigarh, North India

Abstract

Context: Acute rheumatic fever (ARF)/rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in India, yet, few studies are available on susceptibility markers.

Objective: To associate human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles with north Indian RHD patients as genetic susceptibility markers.

Materials and methods: HLA alleles were analysed using sequence specific primer-polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide sequencing, while HLA-B27 expression by flowcytometry.

Results: Few HLA-DQB1/DRB1 alleles were associated with RHD and HLA-DRB1*14 gene polymorphism revealed two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in patients. Bioinformatic predictions showed influence of SNPs on protein function. HLA-B27 was positive in 42.85% ARF patients.

Conclusion: The study showed association of different HLA class II alleles with RHD in North Indian population.

Keywords::

• Group A streptococcus (GAS)
• HLA-B27
• HLA gene polymorphism
• single nucleotide polymorphism

Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Central Sophisticated Instrumentation Cell (CSIC), PGIMER, Chandigarh for their help to carry out flowcytometric analysis.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.