COORDINATION RESEARCH ON IMMUNOGENETICS OF AIDS

Información del proyecto

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: MR4*0109

Proyecto cerrado

Fecha de inicio 1 Diciembre 1988

Fecha de finalización 31 Mayo 1991

Financiado con arreglo a

• Research and development coordination programme (EEC) in the field of medical and health research, 1987-1991

Coste total

Sin datos

Aportación de la UE

Sin datos

Coordinado por

University Hospital of Copenhagen (Rigshospitalet)
Denmark

Objetivo

The aim of this Concerted Action was to clarify whether immunogenetic markers of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of man, the HLA system, controls the susceptibility to become infected with HIV and/or the susceptibility to develop AIDS when infected.
The coordinated research programme is to investigate whether there is a genetic predisposition to become infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) upon exposure to and/or to develop acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) once infected with HIV. 14 different groups from 12 different countries participate in this collaboration.
13 different groups from 12 European countries human leucocyte antigen (HLA ) typed and provided HLA data on 8614 unrelated controls and HLA and clinical data on 1581 unrelated patients including 1246 HIV infected ones. No differences in HLA marker frequencies were observed between 127 HIV positive and 148 HIV negative haemophiliacs indicating that the HLA system does probably not control infectability in this group of patients.
In other groups, there was some evidence that the susceptibility to become infected with HIV might be partly controlled by the HLA system. There was better evidence that HLA factors may influence the course of the HIV infection because significantly more antigens than should be expected showed significant differences in the frequencies when comparing patients with symptomatic HIV infection with patients without symptoms. Moreover, when comparing 114 patients classified as fast progressors with 145 classified as slow progressors, the HLA-B35 antigen was significantly associated with fast progression.
Apart from the HIV studies, this investigation also provided evidence against a previously claimed association between haemophilia and HLA-DR5.

The major goal of this CA was to clarify whether there are immunogenetic markers associated with a predisposition for HIV-infection and/or the subsequent development of AIDS. In order to answer this question, it was felt that various well-characterized cohorts from different homogeneous European populations together with ethnically matched controls were well suited for study, and the HLA system was considered the best candidate as a marker system because it has been shown to control the susceptibility to a variety of other diseases. Moreover, the HLA system is the most polymorphic genetic system with known function in man. The newly developed DNA-technology allowed definition of new markers not recognizable with conventional methods, but the distribution of these markers in the population had to be established. Moreover, training of staff in these new methods and some degree of standardization was required. To solve these problems, collaboration between a number of groups within the EEC and COST countries was required, which thus became one of the objectives of the study.

Ámbito científico (EuroSciVoc)

• ciencias naturales › ciencias biológicas › microbiología › virología
• ciencias médicas y de la salud › ciencias de la salud › enfermedad infecciosa › virus de ARN › VIH

Programa(s)

• FP2-MHR 4C - Research and development coordination programme (EEC) in the field of medical and health research, 1987-1991

Tema(s)

• 1.2 - Viro-immunological research (basic research)

Convocatoria de propuestas

Datos no disponibles

Régimen de financiación

CON - Coordination of research actions

Coordinador

University Hospital of Copenhagen (Rigshospitalet)

• Aportación de la UE: Sin datos
• Dirección: Tagensvej 20 ; 2200 Copenhagen N ; Dinamarca
• Coste total: Sin datos