Identification of three novel HLA class I alleles: HLA-B*3928, HLA-B*400104 and HLA-B*4437.

Three new human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles have been identified in the Tissue Typing Laboratory in Sydney, Australia. Sequence analysis of exon 2 and exon 3 of the HLA-B gene revealed the novel polymorphism. A silent substitution of C to T at nucleotide position 369 has been identified for the HLA-B400104 allele when compared to the closest matched allele, HLA-B400101. The HLA-B3928 allele was identified with a nucleotide substitution of G to C at position 362 when compared to the closest matched allele, HLA-B390101, resulting in an amino acid substitution of Arginine to Threonine. A nucleotide substitution of C to G at position 572 resulting in the amino acid change Serine to Tryptophan was identified in the new allele HLA-B4437, when compared to the closest matched allele HLA-B440301. Both amino acid substitutions implicate a different specificity and affinity of antigen binding for the alleles HLA-B3928 and HLA-B4437.