Susceptibility and Resistance to HIV Infection: Human Genetic Factors

In this study, we conducted a comparative analysis of the prevalence of certain polymorphisms in genes related to HIV infection in three different ethnic groups in Brazil and in a cohort of individuals infected with HIV-1. As expected, the alleles analyzed did not occur at similar frequencies in the Brazilian ethnic groups studied. The observed allele frequencies were not statistically different when comparing HIV-1 infected and uninfected individuals. However, when we subclassified the infected individuals, we found different allele frequencies of the genes, suggesting that the analyzed mutations could be responsible for delaying the progression of AIDS. The effect of the polymorphism of some alleles on the progression to AIDS remains controversial. In the current study, we demonstrated that some polymorphisms were found in all ethnic groups studied. This study was pioneering in Brazil and, therefore, of great importance for obtaining a better understanding of the genetics of the Brazilian population as well as the influence of various polymorphisms in host genes on the progression to AIDS.