Description and molecular modeling of two novel HLA alleles: HLA-A*0343 and A*0345.

We report the identification of two novel human leucocyte antigen (HLA) in two Caucasian individuals. HLA-A*0343 differs from A*03010101 by four changes at nucleotides 411-414 (CCGG-->TGAA) and by a point mutation at position 418 (G-->C). These differences lead to two amino acid substitutions at codon 114, where arginine has changed into negatively charged glutamic acid, and at codon 116, where aspartic acid has changed into positively charged histidine.