title: Association of HLA antigens with differential responsiveness to Mycobacterium w vaccine in multibacillary leprosy patients.
abstract: Leprosy patients undergoing phase II trials in two hospitals of New Delhi, India, were HLA typed to see the association of HLA with differential responsiveness to Mycobacterium w vaccine. The vaccine comprises an atypical, nonpathogenic mycobacterium, Mycobacterium w, which has cross-reactive antigens with M. leprae. Multibacillary patients who are lepromin negative are vaccinated at an interval of 3 months. Considerable improvement is evident in the patients in terms of a decline in bacterial indices and histopathological and immunological upgrading. But all the patients do not respond to the vaccine in the same manner; some are slow responders, while others are good responders. HLA-A28 and DQw3 (DQw8 + 9) were found to be associated with slow responsiveness, while DQw1 and DQw7 were found to be associated with a more rapid responsiveness to the M. w vaccine. However, these associations were not significant after P correction for the number of antigens tested for each locus except for HLA-DQw3 (DQw8 and DQw9) and DQw7. DQw7, a new defined split of HLA-DQw3, seems to be associated with the responsiveness to M. w vaccine.
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rani
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Zaheer
authors.forename: N R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Suresh
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Walia
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Parida
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Talwar
mesh_terms: D003429:Cross Reactions; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology*; D015234:HLA-A Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D007916:Lepromin; D007918:Leprosy / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000276:immunology*; D015164:Vaccines, Inactivated / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens; D015234:HLA-A Antigens; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D015164:Vaccines, Inactivated; D007916:Lepromin