CCR2B-64I chemokine receptor allele and mother-to-child HIV-1 transmissionor disease progression in children

The beneficial role of a variant of the chemokine receptor CCR2B (CCR2B-64I ) in the evolution of HIV-1 infection in adults is still controversial. Fur thermore. no studies have been performed in HIV-1-infected children. A mult icenter and prospective study of 745 infants born to HIV-1-seropositive mot hers was performed. The CCR2B-64I allele was studied in 525 non-African chi ldren among whom 523 had been previously genotyped for the CCR5 Delta 32 al lele and 220 African children. Of the 745 total, 376 children were infected and 369 were uninfected. In the complete population studied, the children homozygous for the CCR2B-64I allele and the heterozygous children were foun d distributed equally in the infected (respectively, 1.6% and 21%) and unin fected (respectively, 1.9% and 26.3%) groups (p < .22). Among 376 infected children, the incidence of stage C symptoms (U.S. Centers for Disease Contr ol and Prevention [CDC] classification) or the progression of severe immune deficiency (CD4 <15%, CDC stage 3) was not significantly different in hete rozygous infected children or children homozygous for the normal allele (p < .17 and p < .75, respectively). The same lack of protective effect was ob tained when a separate analysis was performed in the non-African and Africa n HIV-1-infected children.