Chemokines SNPs in HIV-1+ Patients and Healthy Controls from Northeast Brazil: Association with Protection against HIV-1 Infection

• Published in: Current HIV research Vol. 14; no. 4; p. 340
• Main Authors: Celerino da Silva, Ronaldo, Victor Campos Coelho, Antonio, Cláudio Arraes, Luiz, André Cavalcanti Brandão, Lucas, Lima Guimarães, Rafael, Crovella, Sergio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands 01-01-2016
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Brazil; Chemokines - genetics; Disease Resistance; Female; Gene Frequency; Genotyping Techniques; HIV Infections - immunology; HIV Infections - virology; HIV-1 - immunology; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Receptors, Chemokine - genetics; Receptors, CXCR6; Receptors, Virus - genetics; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1873-4251
• DOI: 10.2174/1570162X14666160120152237

HIV-1 virus is known to infect the host mainly through CD4+ T-lymphocyte cells, by interactions among the viral envelope proteins, CD4 receptor and HIV-1 coreceptors, such as chemokines receptors. Variations in the genes encoding HIV-1 coreceptors and their natural ligands have been shown to modify HIV-1 infection susceptibility and disease progression.
We analysed the distribution of SNPs in chemokines (CCL3, CCL4, CCL5, CXCL12) and chemokine receptor (CXCR6) genes, in 268 HIV-1 infected patients (HIV-1+) and 221 healthy controls from Northeast Brazil, and their possible connection with susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. The genotyping were performed through allele specific fluorogenic probes using real time PCR. We observed that the T alleles and AT genotype of rs1719153 CCL4 SNP were more frequent in healthy controls (19.8% and 35.0%, respectively) than in HIV-1+ patients (T allele: 14.1%; OR=0.67; 95%CI=0.47-0.95; p-value=0.020; and AT genotype: 24.4%; OR=0.61; 95%CI=0.40- 0.93; p-value=0.021) after correcting for age and sex. The rs1719134 (CCL3) and rs1719153 (CCL4) SNPs presented linkage disequilibrium (D'=0.83). The AT haplotype frequency was increased in healthy controls (17.3%) in relation to HIV-1+ patients (11.0%; OR=0.62; 95%CI=0.42-0.93; p-value=0.020).
Since our results revealed an increased frequency of alleles and genotypes of CCL3/CCL4 SNPs and haplotype (CCL3-CCL4) among healthy controls, we suggest that these variations might have a potential protective role against HIV-1 infection.