Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1996 Aug 22;382(6593):722-5.
doi: 10.1038/382722a0.

Resistance to HIV-1 infection in caucasian individuals bearing mutant alleles of the CCR-5 chemokine receptor gene

M Samson  1 , F Libert, B J Doranz, J Rucker, C Liesnard, C M Farber, S Saragosti, C Lapoumeroulie, J Cognaux, C Forceille, G Muyldermans, C Verhofstede, G Burtonboy, M Georges, T Imai, S Rana, Y Yi, R J Smyth, R G Collman, R W Doms, G Vassart, M Parmentier
Affiliations

Resistance to HIV-1 infection in caucasian individuals bearing mutant alleles of the CCR-5 chemokine receptor gene

M Samson et al. Nature. .

Abstract

HIV-1 and related viruses require co-receptors, in addition to CD4, to infect target cells. The chemokine receptor CCR-5 (ref.1) was recently demonstrated to be a co-receptor for macrophage-tropic (M-tropic) HIV-1 strains, and the orphan receptor LESTR (also called fusin) allows infection by strains adapted for growth in transformed T-cell lines (T-tropic strains). Here we show that a mutant allele of CCR-5 is present at a high frequency in caucasian populations (allele frequency, 0.092), but is absent in black populations from Western and Central Africa and Japanese populations. A 32-base-pair deletion within the coding region results in a frame shift, and generates a non-functional receptor that does not support membrane fusion or infection by macrophage- and dual-tropic HIV-1 strains. In a cohort of HIV-1 infected caucasian subjects, no individual homozygous for the mutation was found, and the frequency of heterozygotes was 35% lower than in the general population. White blood cells from an individual homozygous for the null allele were found to be highly resistant to infection by M-tropic HIV-1 viruses, confirming that CCR-5 is the major co-receptor for primary HIV-1 strains. The lower frequency of heterozygotes in seropositive patients may indicate partial resistance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

  • Natural resistance to HIV?
    Hill CM, Littman DR. Hill CM, et al. Nature. 1996 Aug 22;382(6593):668-9. doi: 10.1038/382668a0. Nature. 1996. PMID: 8751431 No abstract available.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

Associated data