High-resolution HLA genotyping technology helps improve transplant matching accuracy

The AlloDx R&D team, together with the Xuzhou Municipal Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University and the School of Life Sciences of Jiangsu University, successfully broke through the bottleneck of traditional typing technology and innovatively developed a new high-resolution HLA genotyping method based on a combination of multiplex PCR and next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. The relevant results have been recently published in the immunology journal Frontiers in Immunology.

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) is a critical barrier to successful organ transplantation. Due to the extremely high polymorphism of loci, traditional SBT (sequence typing) technology has significant ambiguity in distinguishing highly similar alleles, resulting in insufficient matching accuracy (only 4-digit resolution), a hidden increase in the risk of rejection, and increased time and cost for secondary typing.

AlloDx independently designs a multiplex primer system covering the six core loci of HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, HLA-DPB1, HLA-DQB1 and HLA-DRB1. It innovatively integrates NGS long-read sequencing technology to achieve full-level high-resolution HLA typing at 2, 4 and 6 loci. This technology has been verified by double-blind control of SBT (sequence-based typing) and probe capture methods, and has completed cohort verification of 770 Chinese Han population samples, and is expected to provide assistance for organ transplant matching in China.