Susceptibility and Resistance to HIV Infection

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.