Identification of a new HLA allele, A*1114, in a Chinese family

A novel HLA-A allele, A*1114, was initially detected in two generations of a Chinese family by unusual polymerase chain reaction based sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) reaction patterns and ambiguous sequence-based typing (SBT). Molecular cloning and sequencing analysis indicated that this new allele differs from HLA-A*1102 by three nucleotide substitutions in exon 3, 524 A→G, 526 G→C, and 527 C→G, thus changing codon 175 from His to Arg (CAT→CGT) and codon 176 from Ala to Arg (GCG→CGG). Segregation analysis showed that the proband inherited his mother's HLA haplotype A*1114, B*5801, DRB1*1405. The serologic equivalent of A*1114 is a split antigen HLA-A11.2. A PCR-SSP method was developed to distinguish A*1114 from other A*11 alleles. No further individuals with A*1114 were found in 5000 Chinese bone marrow donors.