Reappraisal of the Relationship between the HIV-1-Protective Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism 35 Kilobases Upstream of theHLA-CGene and Surface HLA-C Expression

Abstract

ABSTRACTPrevious studies have found an association between a single-nucleotide polymorphism 35 kb upstream of theHLA-Clocus (−35 SNP), HLA-C expression, and HIV-1 set point viral loads. We show that the difference in HLA-C expression across −35 SNP genotypes can be attributed primarily to the very low expression of a single allelic product, HLA-Cw7, which is a common HLA type. We suggest that association of the −35 SNP and HIV-1 load manifests as a result of linkage disequilibrium of this polymorphism with both favorable and unfavorable HLA-C and -B alleles.