APOBEC3G POLYMORPHISM AND ITS IMPACT ON HAART RESPONSE AMONG HIV-1 IN MOROCCAN PATIENTS

Abstract

APOBEC3G protein is a cytidine deaminase with strong antiviral activity acting as part of the antiviral innate immunity. It plays an important role in restricting intracellular HIV-1 replication. Two APOBEC3G allelic variants H186R rs8177832 and rs35228531 were shown to be associated with risk to HIV infection and also to the collapse of the immune system. Their polymorphism frequency differs depending on ethnic groups. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the allele and genotype frequency distribution of both SNPs among Moroccan healthy individuals and to assess its impact on the responsiveness to antiretroviral therapy among Moroccan HIV patients. In the present cross-sectional study, we enrolled 90 HIV patients confirmed and under HAART and 68 healthy individuals. Polymorphism for H186R and rs35228531 was performed using TaqMan®Drug Metabolism Genotyping Assay. The mutant allele frequency in healthy individuals was 17% for rs8177832 and 9% for rs35228531. The frequencies of mutated genotypes rs8177832 (GG) rs35228531 (TT) in healthy subjects were 4.41% and 1.96%, respectively. Regarding the impact of the polymorphism of these two genetic variants on the response to HAART, our results showed that both SNPs were not correlated to the response to antiretroviral therapy in the Moroccan population.