Background: Healthy individuals can host Staphylococcus aureus in the nasopharynx, body surface and vagina. Most\r\ninvasive infections by this bacterium are endogenous, caused by strains spread from the nasopharynx of carriers. S.\r\naureus is a pathogen involved in the etiology of hospital- and community-acquired infections. Transplant and dialysis\r\npatients are at risk of colonization or infection by multi-resistant S. aureus. Infection is directly linked to individual\r\nimmunity, and the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays a crucial role in determining susceptibility to diseases.\r\nDifferent MHC specificities have been shown to be more frequent in individuals suffering from certain diseases. This\r\nstudy aimed to investigate the association between HLA class I (HLA-A and -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1) molecules and\r\nnasal carriage of S. aureus in dialysis and kidney transplant patients at a hospital in Southern Brazil.\r\nResults: The sample consisted of 70 dialysis and 46 kidney transplant patients, totaling 116 patients. All subjects\r\nwere typed for HLA molecules using LABType�® SSO (One Lambda). Nasal swab samples of S. aureus were isolated\r\nfrom the nasal cavity (both nostrils) of patients undergoing dialysis or kidney transplantation.\r\nIn renal dialysis patients, HLA-A*02 was the most frequent allele in both carriers (25.5%) and non-carriers (21.2%) of\r\nS. aureus. Allele A*68 was not observed in the carrier group, but the allele was observed six times in the noncarrier\r\ngroup (p = 0.0097). Regarding HLA-B and HLA-DRB1, no allele was shown to be involved in protection\r\nagainst or susceptibility to carriage of S. aureus. In kidney transplant patients, allele A*03 was more frequent in the\r\nnon-carrier (20.83%) than in the carrier (5.88%) group (p = 0.0486). HLA-B*15 was present in carriers (5.88%) and\r\nnon-carriers (25%) (p = 0.0179). Regarding class II alleles, DRB1*03 appeared to be related to susceptibility to\r\ncarriage of S. aureus (p = 0.0319).\r\nConclusions: Our findings suggest that HLA-DRB1*03 may be involved in susceptibility to nasal carriage of S.\r\naureus in transplant patients. In addition, HLA-A*68 (dialysis patients) and HLA-A*03 and HLA-B*15 (transplant\r\npatients) appear to be associated with increased resistance to S. aureus nasal carriage.
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