Host Gene Polymorphisms Influence the Clinical Course of HIV-1 Infection
Frank Struyf
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*Correspondence: Frank Struyf, Email not available
Abstract
Chemokine receptors act as important co-receptorsmediating HIV-1 entry into susceptible cells.The discovery that homozygotes for a 32-basepairdeletion in the gene for chemokine receptor CCR5(CCR5-A32) are almost completely protectedagainst infection with HIV-1 has initiated a searchfor other ‘protective’ polymorphisms in genes encodingchemokine receptors and their ligands.While not rendering resistance to HIV-1 infection,CCR5-A32 heterozygosity and a point mutation inthe CCR2 chemokine receptor gene (CCR2-64I) areassociated with delayed progression to AIDS,whereas a promoter variant of CCR5 appears to acceleratethe clinical course of the disease (Martin etal. Science 1998;282:1907-11).
