Relationship of HLA-A,-Cw polymorphisms with HIV/AIDS in Chinese Yi ethnic group of Sichuan province

The relationship of HLA-A,-Cw alleles on HIV infection and AIDS disease progression in the Chinese Yi ethnic group of Sichuan province were investigated. The genetic polymorphisms of HLA-A,-Cw alleles of 102 unrelated healthy Chinese Yi ethnic individuals, 68 HIV-1 infected and 21 HIV positive long-time survivors were typed by PCR-SSP assay. Statistic significance was determined by the x ² test with the SPSS software. No significant differences were observed between the HLA-A,-Cw alleles of the 68 HIV-1 infected and 102 non-infected Chinese Yi control individuals. Whereas the prevalence of A*3601,Cw*14(01-03)and Cw*0304 was significantly higher in 21 long time survivors compared with 102 healthy controls with P values of 0.016, 0.016 and 0.000 by x ² or the Fisher exact test respectively. The result implies that A*3601,Cw*14(01-03) and Cw*0304 may be associated with slow AIDS disease progression in the Chinese Yi ethnic group, further studies on this association may yield insight on the pathogenesis of HIV-1 infection. Foundation items: the 10^th Five-Years Key Technologies R&D Program (2004BA719A01) and 973 Program (2006 CB 504207)