Prevalence of CCR5delta32 in Northeastern Iran

Abstract

Background: A 32-base pair deletion (32) in the open reading frame (ORF) of C-C motif chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) seems to be a protective variant against immune system diseases, especially human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). We aimed to assess the frequency of CCR5 32 in the healthy Iranian population. Methods: In this study, 400 normal samples from Khorasan, northeastern Iran, were randomly selected. The frequency of CCR5 32 carriers was investigated using PCR analysis. Allele prevalence and the fit to the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were analyzed. Results: The prevalence of CCR5 32 in the northeastern population of Iran was 0.016. Four hundred samples were studied, among which one with CCR5 32/32 and 11 with CCR5 Wild/32 genotype were detected. Conclusion: This study was the first investigation for an assessment of the prevalence of CCR5 32 in northeastern Iran. The low prevalence of CCR5 32 allele in the Iranian population may result in the increased susceptibility to HIV-1. In addition, this prevalence is the same as that of reported in East Asia, while is lower than that in the Europeans.