Association of HLA class II alleles with hepatitis C virus clearance and persistence in thalassemia patients from Iran.

There is no published data on association of HLA class II alleles with clearance or persistence after acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in patients from Iran. HLA DRB1, DQA1, and DQB1 alleles were determined using polymerase chain reaction amplification with sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) on a total of 117 thalassemia patients (63 with chronic infection, and 54 with viral clearance) and 120 healthy controls. HLA-DRB1*0301 and DQA1*0501 alleles were found significantly present in patients with HCV clearance compared to those with chronic infection (P = 0.03 and P = 0.0007, respectively). By contrast, DRB1*0701, DQA1*0201, and DQB1*0602 alleles occurred significantly in those with chronic infection compared to those with viral clearance (P = 0.004, P = 0.007, and P = 0.02, respectively). As compared to the controls, DRB1*0301, DRB1*11, DQA1*0501, and DQB1*0301 alleles showed a significant decrease in chronic patients (P = 0.002, P = 0.001, P = 0.0001, and P = 0.0004, respectively). Furthermore, the haplotype frequencies of DRB1*0301, DQA1*0501, DQB1*0201, and DRB1*1101, DQA1*0501, DQB1*0301 were found significantly higher (P = 0.004 and P = 0.04, respectively) in patients with HCV clearance than those with chronic infection. By contrast, the haplotype DRB1*0701, DQA1*0201, DQB1*0201 occurred more frequently (P = 0.02) in those with chronic infection compared with those with viral clearance. These findings suggest that particular HLA alleles and related haplotypes may have an influence on the outcome of HCV infection among the Iranian patients. Some of the HLA alleles found in the Iranian patients are different from those reported elsewhere, suggesting that the immunogenetic makeup for HCV clearance or persistence may vary based on the ethnicity.