Identification and characterization of 122 novel HLA alleles in bone marrow donors recruited to the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Donor Registry.

Between January 2018 and June 2021, the Ezer Mizion recruited 223,960 donors. All donors were typed for their HLA class I and II alleles at high resolution by Next Generation Sequencing techniques. Comparison between the sequences obtained from these donors and those in the IPD-IMGT/HLA Database, revealed 122 Novel HLA alleles that were found in 133 donors.

Soluble HLA peptidome of pleural effusions is a valuable source for tumor antigens.

Background: Soluble human leucocyte antigen (sHLA) molecules, released into the plasma, carry their original peptide cargo and provide insight into the protein synthesis and degradation schemes of their source cells and tissues. Other body fluids, such as pleural effusions, may also contain sHLA-peptide complexes, and can potentially serve as a source of tumor antigens since these fluids are drained from the tumor microenvironment. We explored this possibility by developing a methodology for purifying and analyzing large pleural effusion sHLA class I peptidomes of patients with malignancies or benign diseases.

MHC Haplotyping of SARS-CoV-2 Patients: HLA Subtypes Are Not Associated with the Presence and Severity of COVID-19 in the Israeli Population.

HLA haplotypes were found to be associated with increased risk for viral infections or disease severity in various diseases, including SARS. Several genetic variants are associated with COVID-19 severity. Studies have proposed associations, based on a very small sample and a large number of tested HLA alleles, but no clear association between HLA and COVID-19 incidence or severity has been reported.

East Meets West-Impact of Ethnicity on Donor Match Rates in the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Donor Registry.

HLA haplotype frequencies in a volunteer bone marrow donor registry should reflect the frequencies of potential transplant recipients served by that registry, a challenge in a country with diverse subethnicities of immigrants from Eastern and Western cultures, such as Israel. We evaluated the likelihood of finding suitable donors for hypothetical patients drawn from defined subethnicities in the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Donor Registry (EM BMDR) from donors both within and outside the registry now and during the coming decade. On average, bioinformatics modeling predicts that, given current donor recruitment trends, 6/6 high-resolution HLA match rates for Israelis, which currently stand at 40% to 55% for most subethnicities, will rise by up to 1% per year over the next decade.

High-resolution HLA A∼B∼DRB1 haplotype frequencies from the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Donor Registry in Israel.

We have investigated HLA population alleles and haplotype frequencies for the ethnicities that comprise the contemporary population of Israel, using a large data set from the Ezer Mizion Bone Barrow Donor Registry. We genotyped 275,699 individuals at the HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 loci using HLA genotyping methods. HLA A∼B∼DRB1 haplotype frequencies were estimated from 19 sub-ethnic Jewish populations and other non-Jewish minorities using the maximum likelihood model, which accommodates typing ambiguities.

Age-dependent HLA profiles of the Israeli population: impact on hematopoietic cell donor recruitment and availability.

Approximately three million people have immigrated to the state of Israel since it was founded. Consequently, the immunogenetic profile of the younger generation may consist of a genetic mixture of formerly distinct population groups. We aimed to investigate whether HLA profiles in the Israeli population are age dependent and how this influences representation of various age groups in local donor registries.

[Cancer survivorship: an evolving medical field].

More than a quarter of a million IsraeLi citizens live today with the diagnosis of cancer being a part of their past medical history. The volume of this population is going to enlarge in coming years. These patients tend to suffer from several unique medical and psychosocial difficulties due to their original malignant disease and its risk factors, as a consequence of the antineoplastic treatments they had received, and as a result of exceptional presentation of concomitant non-neoplastic diseases.

Whose informational needs are considered? A comparison between cancer patients and their spouses' perceptions of their own and their partners' knowledge and informational needs.

The present study examines information exchange patterns between 98 married couples in Israel where one is a cancer patient and the other is the main caregiver. Specifically, the accuracy of each spouse's perception of the extent of knowledge and the need to receive more disease-related information is examined as a function of the role (patient-caregiver) and gender of the participants. The results showed that women, regardless of their role, were inaccurate in their perception of their husbands' knowledge and motivation to know more.