. 2000 Oct 28;321(7268):1061–1065. doi: 10.1136/bmj.321.7268.1061

Table 2.

Examples of candidate gene associations with common infectious diseases^*

Infection	Candidate gene region	Main function of protein encoded	Selected references
HIV and AIDS	CCR5, CCR2	Chemokine receptor	Carrington et al,¹² Martin et al¹⁸
HIV and AIDS	HLA class I	Antigen presentation	Carrington et al,¹² Martin et al¹⁸
Hepatitis B	HLA class II	Antigen presentation	Thursz et al¹³
Meningococcal disease	C5 to C9	Terminal complement pathway	Hibberd et al¹⁹
Meningococcal disease	MBL	Opsonisation	Hibberd et al¹⁹
Tuberculosis	HLA-DR	Antigen presentation	Singh et al,¹¹ Bellamy et al²⁰
	NRAMP1	Divalent cation transporter
	VDR	Vitamin D receptor
Leprosy	HLA class II	Antigen presentation	Todd et al,²¹ Roy et al²²
Leprosy	TNF	Pro-inflammatory cytokine	Todd et al,²¹ Roy et al²²
Malaria	DARC	Chemokine receptor	Hill et al,¹⁰ Knight et al,¹⁵ Miller et al,²³ Tournamille et al,²⁴ Flint et al,²⁵ Ruwende et al²⁶
	α and β globin	Haemoglobin subunits
	G6PD	Carbohydrate metabolism
	HLA class I and II	Antigen presentation
	TNF	Pro-inflammatory cytokine
Leishmaniasis	TNF	Pro-inflammatory cytokine	Cabrera et al²⁷

Gene regions in which allelic variants have been associated with increased or decreased susceptibility to infectious disease. Variant allele is often common in the population (such as above 10%), but alteration in disease risk is relatively modest (twofold to fourfold). These examples probably represent a small minority of the total number of genetic factors involved.