Study on interactions between infectious diseases and host genetic factors in East Asia and Oceania

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(1) The significant association of TNFA promoter polymorphisms with cerebral malaria was found in malaria patients living in the northwest of Thailand. Also, we detected several HLA-DRB1 and -B alleles associated with severe or cerebral malaria. The TNFR2 polymorphism, 196M/R, was not associated with the disease severity in the malaria patients.(2) The Duffy antigen as a receptor for Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium knowlesi was analyzed in the malaria-endemic regions of Southeast Asia and Oceania. The Fya-antigens found in this study showed weak reactivity to antisera. Such weak phenotypes are considered to have been maintained in the study populations due to a selective advantage through resistance to malaria.(3) Seroprevalence of antibodies to human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) was surveyed among the Thai population. Although Thailand is located between HTLV-1 harboring countries, HTLV-1 was found not to endemic in the Thai population.(4) HLA-DRB1 polymorphism was studied in the Gidra and Balopa populations of Papua New Guinea. The Balopa islanders showed a genetic similarity to Austronesian speaking groups in the Melanesia and also to the Gidra who are Non-Austronesian, while they are distant from the Polynesian and Micronesian populations. This result strongly suggests that the admixture between Austronesian and Non-Austronesian occurred in Papua New Guinea, regardless of their different language.