Maternal Human Leukocyte Antigen A*2301 Is Associated with Increased Mother-to-Child HIV-1 Transmission

We examined associations between maternal human leukocyte antigen (HLA) and vertical human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) transmission in a perinatal cohort of 277 HIV-infected women in Nairobi. HLA class I genes were amplified by using sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes, and analyses were performed using logistic regression. Maternal HLA-A*2301 was associated with increased transmission risk before and after adjusting for maternal viral load (unadjusted: odds ratio [OR], 3.21; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.42-7.27; P = .005; P(corr) = 0.04; adjusted: OR, 3.07; 95% CI, 1.26-7.51; P = .01; P(corr) is not significant). That macorr ternal HLA-A*2301 was associated with transmission independent of plasma HIV-1 RNA levels suggests that HLA may alter infectivity through mechanisms other than influencing HIV-1 load.