Distribution of HLA Allele Frequencies in Patients with Cystic and Alveolar Echinococcosis in Latvia

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between HLA Class II alleles in two groups of patients in Latvia: patients with cystic and alveolar echinococcosis. The study included 37 patients from the Rīga East Clinical University Hospital with echinococcosis (29 patients with cystic echinococcosis and eight patients with alveolar echinococcosis) and 100 healthy control persons without echinococcosis. HLA Class II allele genotyping was performed using Real-time polymerase chain reaction–sequence specific primer (RT-PCR-SSP). The odds ratios (OR), with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), were calculated using statistical analysis performed with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0, to evaluate the risk of developing the disease in an individual having a particular HLA genotype. In the case of cystic echinococcosis a more severe course of a disease can be anticipated in the presence of HLA-DRB1 alleles *17:01 and *07:01, -DQB1 *03:02, and *03:01, -DQA1*04:01 and haplotypes HLA-DRB1*04:01/-DQB1*03:01/ -DQA1*03:01, HLADRB1*11:01/ -DQB1*03:01 /-DQA1*05:01. However, in the group with alveolar echinococcosis it was associated with the HLA-DRB1 alleles *17:01 and *07:01, -DQB1 *05:01 and haplotypes HLA- DRB1*17:01/-DQB1*02:01-2/-DQA1*01:01, HLA-DRB1*11:01/ -DQB1*03:01/-DQA1*01:03 and HLA-DRB1*11:01/-DQB1*03:01/-DQA1*03:01. HLADRB1*15:01/-DQÂ1*06:02-8/-DQA1*05:01 and HLA-DRB1*13:01/-DQB1*02:01-2/-DQA1*05:01 haplotypes were protective in all patient groups. The limitations of this exploratory study indicate that a broader study needs to be conducted for revealing specific risk and protective HLA Class II haplotypes for patients with cystic and alveolar echinococcosis in Latvia.