Effect of blood type on anti-a-Gal immunity and the incidence of infectious diseases

• Author(s): Neves, Margarida Correia
• Date: 2017
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/49065
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Subject(s): Science & Technology
• Document Type: Journal article
• Language: English
• Contributor(s): [et al.]; Universidade do Minho

Description

The identification of factors affecting the susceptibility to infectious diseases is essential toward reducing their burden on the human population. The ABO blood type correlates with susceptibility to malaria and other infectious diseases. Due to the structural similarity between blood antigen B and Gal alpha 1-3Gal beta 1-(3)4GlcNAc-R (alpha-Gal), we hypothesized that self-tolerance to antigen B affects the immune response to alpha-Gal, which in turn affects the susceptibility to infectious diseases caused by pathogens carrying alpha-Gal on their surface. Here we found that the incidence of malaria and tuberculosis, caused by pathogens with alpha-Gal on their surface, positively correlates with the frequency of blood type B in endemic regions. However, the incidence of dengue fever, caused by a pathogen without alpha-Gal, was not related to the frequency of blood type B in these populations. Furthermore, the incidence of malaria and tuberculosis was negatively correlated with the anti-alpha-Gal antibody protective response. These results have implications for disease control and prevention.

The research was partially supported by the European Union projects, ANTIcipating the Global Onset of Novel Epidemics (ANTIGONE) project number 278976, and the COllaborative Management Platform for detection and Analyses of (Re-) emerging and foodborne outbreaks in Europe (COMPARE) Grant 643476. We thank Vladimir Lopez (IREC, Spain) for the contribution of M. marinum samples and Jose Alberto Garcia Seco (Hospital General Universitario de Ciudad Real, Spain) for technical assistance.

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion