Frequency of HLA B*15:02 Variant Allele In A Healthy South Indian Population

Purpose: To determine the frequency of HLA B*15:02 variant allele in a healthy South Indian population and compare it with other population frequencies.

Methods: Five millilitres of venous blood samples were collected from 203 unrelated healthy volunteers of South Indian origin between the age group of 18 and 60 years and of either gender. DNA extraction was performed using the standard Phenol-Chloroform method. Genotyping of tagging SNPs of HLA B*15:02 variant allele was done using Real-Time PCR. The tagging SNPs of HLA B*15:02 variant allele includes G > C (rs3909184) and G > A (rs2844682).

Results: The variation was found to occur at frequencies of GG (66%), GC (14%), GA (16%), CC (2%) and AA (2%). The genotype frequencies were found to be in Hardy Weinberg equilibrium. A statistically significant difference was seen in the frequency distribution of genotypes between the study population and the people belonging to ethnicities of Japanese, Hispanics, African and Non-Caucasian Americans.

Conclusion: The frequency of occurrence of HLA B*1502 genetic variation has been established in south Indian healthy population. The results of this study will serve as the benchmark for future studies related to antiepileptic drugs and HLA B*15:02 in south Indian population