Association between Apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing Enzyme CatalyticPolypeptide-Like 3B (APOBEC3B) Deletion with HIV-1 Acquisition andAIDS among North Indian Population

Objective: Apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-Like 3B (APOBEC3B) is involved in innate immune response, exhibiting insertion–deletion polymorphism across the world in human population. A naturally occurring 29.5 kb deletion removes complete APOBEC3B gene. Human APOBEC3B family of proteins restricts HIV- 1 replication. Very few studies have been conducted on this subject and the deductions regarding the effects of APOBEC3B deletion on HIV-1 susceptibility and pathogenesis have been largely inconsistent. Therefore, we studied the association of APOBEC3B deletion with HIV-1 in the North Indian population. Methods: Insertion (I)/Deletion (D) APOBEC3B polymorphism was analyzed using Polymerase chain reaction. Infection rates as wells as stages of HIV were compared among the three genotypes: deletion-homozygous (D/D), Insertionhomozygous (I/I) and hemizygous (I/D) in 150 HIV-1 seropositive (HSP) and 250 HIV-1 seronegative (HSN) subjects. Results and discussion: The genotypic analysis revealed insignificant associations among homozygous deletion (D/D) genotype (P=0.130, OR=1.93, 95% CI=0.95–4.30) and moderate associations among hemizygous (I/D) genotypes (P=0.057, OR=1.56, 95% CI-1.03–2.44) with HIV-1 susceptibility and also the single copy of variant allele was more susceptible to HIV-1 infection. The severity of HIV-1 infection on the basis of CD4 count was not associated significantly with the disease progression to AIDS. Conclusion: In conclusion, we found that the deletion genotype of APOBEC3B gene polymorphism does not play any significant role on HIV-1 susceptibility. Hence, further studies with the expansion of sample size are needed to validate the results.