Behavioral Risk Exposure and Host Genetics of Susceptibility to HIV-1 Infection.

Background. Some individuals are readily infected with low human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) exposure, whereas others appear less susceptible, suggesting that host genetics plays a role in the viral entry pathway. The matched case-control study design with measured risk exposures provides an avenue for discovering genes involved in susceptibility to infection. Methods. We conducted a nested case-control study of African Americans (266 HIV-1 seroconverter cases and 532 seronegative controls from the AIDS Link to Intravenous Experience cohort), to examine the association between 50 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 9 candidate genes (CCR5, CCR2, RANTES, MIPIA, MCP2, ILl0, IFNG, MCSF, and 1L2) and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. To account for differential exposure propensities, risk behavior self-reported during semiannual visits was used to estimate a standardized cumulative risk exposure (SGRE). Individual SNPs were evaluated using conditional logistic-regression models, and the inferred haplotypes were assessed in the haplotype trend regression analyses after adjusting for age and SGRE. Results. Four SNPs (CCR2-V641, CCR5- 2459, MIPJA+954, and 1L2+3896) and specific haplotypes in the 1L2 and CCR2/CCR5 regions were significantly associated with HIV-1 infection susceptibility in different genetic models. Conclusions. Our results suggest that genetic variants in associated host genes may play an important role in susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]