Abstract

Syed Irtiza*, Dil-Afroze, Niyaz A. Naykoo, Lateef Charoo, Iqbal Qasim, Inayat S.Fazili1, Mir Aasif and Mushtaq A. Siddiqi

Chemokine receptors and their ligands may confer resistance to HIV-1 infection and/or AIDS progression. Our aim was to study our population for the most frequently studied polymorphism CCR5-32 for evaluating their contribution to a protective genetic background against HIV infection and progression. One hundred and fifty blood samples from normal controls were recruited at random among prospective normal blood donors and forty blood samples of HIV/AIDS patients from Ethnic Kashmiri population were collected from Blood Bank and National AIDS Control Organisation of Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura, Kashmir respectively. Genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis followed by electrophoresis. The CCR5- 32 genotype frequency among our study group was wt/wt (93.3%), wt/mt (4%) and mt/mt (3%) from control group, revealing CCR5 32 allele frequency of 5%. The frequency of the CCR5- 32 allele among our study population seems to be remarkably higher compared to previously reported frequencies in other Asian populations. However, since this polymorphism is related with delayed progression from HIV infection to AIDS, it could be used for prognostic genotyping in HIV infected Kashmiri individuals