Association between regulated upon activation, normal T cells expressed and secreted (RANTES) -28C/G polymorphism and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection: a meta-analysis.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Many studies have investigated the distributions of RANTES genotypes between HIV-1 infected patients and uninfected individuals. However, no definite results have been put forward about whether the RANTES -28C/G polymorphism can affect HIV-1 susceptibility. METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of 12 studies including 7473 subjects for whom the RANTES -28C/G polymorphism was genotyped. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were employed to assess the association of the polymorphism with HIV-1 susceptibility. By dividing the controls into healthy controls and HIV-1 exposed but seronegative (HESN) controls, we explored the both allelic and dominant genetic models. RESULTS: By using the healthy controls, we found a marginally significant association between the -28C/G polymorphism and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection in the allelic model (OR = 0.82, 95%CI = 0.70-0.97). But sensitivity analysis suggested that the association was driven by one study. We further performed stratified analysis according to ethnicity. The -28G allele decreased susceptibility to HIV-1 infection in the allelic model among Asians (OR = 0.79, 95%CI = 0.66-0.94). By using the HESN controls, no association between the polymorphism -28C/G and the susceptibility to HIV-1 infection was revealed in either the allelic model (OR = 0.84, 95%CI = 0.60-1.17) or the dominant model (OR = 0.77, 95%CI = 0.54-1.10). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that the RANTES -28G allele might play a role in resistance to HIV-1 infection among Asians. Additional well-designed studies were required for the validation of this association.