Haemophilia and HIV-1 and/or HIV-2 infection. The role of polymorphisms inchemokines and chemokines receptors genes

The study of the HIV co-receptors has important implications for understand ing viral tropism and pathogenesis. In this context, haemophiliacs represen t an interesting cohort of individuals, as they were at continuous risk of being infected by transfusion. Therefore, we studied polymorphisms in chemo kine receptor genes (CCR5, CCR5 promoter, CCR2) and in the chemokine ligand (SDF-1) for CXCR4, in blood donors and patients, to evaluate their effect on the virus infectivity. In blood donors we found that the allelic frequen cies for the polymorphisms are similar to the values found in the haemophil iacs, with no distinction between HIV-I and/or HIV-2 positive and negative groups. In conclusion, our data does not support an essential role for thes e mutations to protect against HIV-1 and/or HIV-2 infection through parente ral transmission (in conditions where neither the value of the inoculum nor the number of inoculations are specified).