[Sequence analysis of a novel HLA allele B*5618]

To identify HLA novel allele in Chinese Han individual.An unknown HLA-B allele which was similar to HLA-B*5610 was detected by polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific oligonucleotide probes(PCR-SSOP), PCR-sequence specific primer(PCR-SSP) and heterozygous sequence-based typing (SBT) in a Chinese Han individual. Its anomalous patterns suggested the possible presence of new allele. The HLA-B*56 allele was amplified separately by using allele-specific primers and sequencing exons 2-4 in both directions. The differences between the novel B*56 allele and B 5610 were identified.There were 4nt changes from B*5610 in exon 3, at nt379 where CG (codon 127 CTGGTG, 127 LeuVal); nt412 where AG (codon 138 AACGAC, 138 AsnAsp), nt419 where TC and nt420 where AC (codon 140 TTATCC, 140 LeuSer). The sequence was submitted to Genbank and the accession number was EF016753.This allele is a novel HLA-B allele, and has been officially named HLA-B*5618 by the WHO Nomenclature Committee in September 2006.