Journal of Molecular Biomarkers & Diagnosis

The Occurrence of HIV-1 Resistance Biomarker Among Two Cohorts from Poland

Abstract

Aleksandra Siekierzynska, Aleksander Myszka, Ryszard Slezak, Izabela Laczmanska and Maciej Wnuk

Approximately 1% of the Caucasians shows resistance to HIV-1 infection conditioned by 32bp deletion in CCR5 gene. Homozygotes are almost totally resistant, but heterozygotes have delay the progression to AIDS. Due to the constantly increase of HIV infection in Poland we examined the incidence of del32 allele in two cohorts (south-western and south-eastern region of country) that remarkably differs in the incidence of HIV. Among the individuals from the south-western region, we detected 7 homozygotes (2.6%), in compare with individuals from the south-eastern area of Poland, where we found 1 homozygote (0.4%). The prevalence of CCR5del32 allele in the group from the southwestern region was estimated at 11.6%, while in the group from the south-eastern region was assessed at 9.7%. Differences in the prevalence of genotypes and alleles between regions were not statistically significant. Our results were discussed in relation to the incidence of HIV infection in Poland. We conclude that occurence of CCR5del32 biomarker does not reflect the incidence of HIV in the examined regions.