AUTHOR=Rahmouni Myriam , De Marco Lorenzo , Spadoni Jean-Louis , Tison Maxime , Medina-Santos Raissa , Labib Taoufik , Noirel Josselin , Tamouza Ryad , Limou Sophie , Delaneau Olivier , Fellay Jacques , Bensussan Armand , Le Clerc Sigrid , McLaren Paul J. , Zagury Jean-François 

TITLE=The HLA-B*57:01 allele corresponds to a very large MHC haploblock likely explaining its massive effect for HIV-1 elite control

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1305856

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2023.1305856

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>We have reanalyzed the genomic data of the International Collaboration for the Genomics of HIV (ICGH), centering on HIV-1 Elite Controllers.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>We performed a genome-wide Association Study comparing 543 HIV Elite Controllers with 3,272 uninfected controls of European descent. Using the latest database for imputation, we analyzed 35,552 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (<italic>MHC</italic>) region.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Our analysis identified 2,626 SNPs significantly associated (p&lt;5. 10-8) with elite control of HIV-1 infection, including well-established <italic>MHC</italic> signals such as the rs2395029-G allele which tags <italic>HLA-B*57:01</italic>. A thorough investigation of SNPs in linkage disequilibrium with rs2395029 revealed an extensive haploblock spanning 1.9 megabases in the <italic>MHC</italic> region tagging <italic>HLA-B*57:01</italic>, comprising 379 SNP alleles impacting 72 genes. This haploblock contains damaging variations in proteins like NOTCH4 and DXO and is also associated with a strong differential pattern of expression of multiple <italic>MHC</italic> genes such as <italic>HLA-B, MICB</italic>, and <italic>ZBTB12</italic>. The study was expanded to include two cohorts of seropositive African-American individuals, where a haploblock tagging the <italic>HLA-B*57:03</italic> allele was similarly associated with control of viral load. The mRNA expression profile of this haploblock in African Americans closely mirrored that in the European cohort.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>These findings suggest that additional molecular mechanisms beyond the conventional antigen-presenting role of class I HLA molecules may contribute to the observed influence of <italic>HLA-B*57:01/B*57:03</italic> alleles on HIV-1 elite control. Overall, this study has uncovered a large haploblock associated with <italic>HLA-B*57</italic> alleles, providing novel insights into their massive effect on HIV-1 elite control.</p></sec>