Association between human leukocyte antigen class II and pulmonary tuberculosis due to mycobacterium tuberculosis in Uganda

BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is reported to infect about a third of the world’s population but only 10 % are thought to develop active tuberculosis (TB) disease. Host immunity regulated by human leukocyte antigens (HLA) is an important determinant of the outcome of the disease. Here we investigate HLA class II gene polymorphisms in susceptibility to TB, and whether particular HLA class II alleles were associated with TB in Uganda. METHODS: HIV negative patients with pulmonary TB (n = 43) and genetically related healthy household controls (n = 42) were typed for their HLA II class alleles using polymerase chain reaction sequence specific primer amplification. RESULTS: The HLA-DQB1*03:03 allele was significantly less frequent in patients compared to healthy controls (10 % in controls versus 0 % in patients, p = 0.003). After correction for multiple comparisons the difference remained significant (p = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the HLA-DQB1*03:03 allele may be associated with resistance to TB. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-016-1346-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.