01790nas a2200289   4500000000100000008004100001260000900042653003900051653001200090653002600102653002000128653003800148653001800186653002500204653001100229653001200240653001200252653000900264653002400273653001700297100001100314245006800325300001100393490000700404520107500411022001401486       2006                            d  c200610aAcquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome10aAnimals10aCommunicable Diseases10aGenetic Linkage10aGenetic Predisposition to Disease10aGenome, Human10aHepatitis B, Chronic10aHumans10aleprosy10aMalaria10aMice10aSignal Transduction10aTuberculosis1 aHill A00aAspects of genetic susceptibility to human infectious diseases.  a469-860 v403 a<p>Host genetic factors play a major role in determining differential susceptibility to major infectious diseases of humans, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and invasive pneumococcal disease. Progress in identifying the relevant genetic loci has come from a variety of approaches. Most convincing associations have been identified by case-control studies assessing biologically plausible candidate genes. All six of the genes that have a major effect on infectious disease susceptibility in humans have been identified in this way. However, recently genome-wide linkage analysis of affected sibling pairs has identified susceptibility loci for chronic infections such as leprosy and chronic hepatitis B virus persistence. Other approaches used successfully have included assessment in humans of the homologues of susceptibility genes mapped and identified in murine models. However, the great majority of susceptibility loci remain to be identified and the advent of large-scale genome-wide association scans offers a new approach to defining many of these.</p>  a0066-4197