title: Allele frequency net 2015 update: new features for HLA epitopes, KIR and disease and HLA adverse drug reaction associations.
abstract: It has been 12 years since the Allele Frequency Net Database (AFND; http://www.allelefrequencies.net) was first launched, providing the scientific community with an online repository for the storage of immune gene frequencies in different populations across the world. There have been a significant number of improvements from the first version, making AFND a primary resource for many clinical and scientific areas including histocompatibility, immunogenetics, pharmacogenetics and anthropology studies, among many others. The most widely used part of AFND stores population frequency data (alleles, genes or haplotypes) related to human leukocyte antigens (HLA), killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR), major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related genes (MIC) and a number of cytokine gene polymorphisms. AFND now contains >1400 populations from more than 10 million healthy individuals. Here, we report how the main features of AFND have been updated to include a new section on 'HLA epitope' frequencies in populations, a new section capturing the results of studies identifying HLA associations with adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and one for the examination of infectious and autoimmune diseases associated with KIR polymorphisms-thus extending AFND to serve a new user base in these growing areas of research. New criteria on data quality have also been included.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK Center for Biomedical Research, Faculty of Medicine, Autonomous University of Coahuila, Torreon, Mexico.
authors.forename: Faviel F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: González-Galarza
authors.affiliation: Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Louise Y C
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Takeshita
authors.affiliation: Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK Human and Medical Genetics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Eduardo J M
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Felicity
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kempson
authors.affiliation: Human and Medical Genetics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria Helena Thomaz
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Maia
authors.affiliation: Human and Medical Genetics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Andrea Luciana Soares
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Human and Medical Genetics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Brazil.
authors.forename: André Luiz
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Teles e Silva
authors.affiliation: Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Gurpreet S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Ghattaoraya
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alfirevic
authors.affiliation: Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK Andrew.Jones@liv.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Andrew R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Transplant Immunology Laboratory, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital, University of Liverpool, UK Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Derek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Middleton
mesh_terms: D030541:Databases, Genetic; D004194:Disease / Q000235:genetics; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000235:genetics; D000939:Epitopes / Q000235:genetics*; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D054340:Receptors, KIR / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D006680:HLA Antigens; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D054340:Receptors, KIR