Programmed cell death-1 single-nucleotide polymorphism rs10204525 is associated with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA viral load in HIV-1-infected Moroccan subjects

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1) infections are characterized by dysfunctional cellular and humoral antiviral immune responses. The progressive loss of effector functions in chronic viral infection has been associated with the up-regulation of programmed death-1 (PD-1), a negative regulator of activated T cells and Natural Killer cells. In HIV-1 infection, increased levels of PD-1 expression correlate with CD8 + T-cell exhaustion. In vitro, PD-1 blockade using PD-1 antibodies led to an increase in HIV-1 specific CD8 + T and memory B cell proliferation. We aimed to investigate the impact of PDCD1 rs10204525 polymorphism on HIV-1 susceptibility, AIDS development, and treatment response outcomes in HIV-1 infection in a Moroccan population. A total of 214 HIV-1 seropositive and 250 seronegative subjects were enrolled to investigate the association between the between the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs10204525 of PDCD1 gene and HIV-1 pathogenesis using a predesigned TaqMan SNP genotyping assay. No significant association was found between rs10204525 and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection and AIDS development ( p > 0.05). Genotype frequencies were significantly associated with the viral load before ART ( p = 0.0105). HIV-1 viral load was significantly higher among subjects with the CC compared to TT genotype ( p = 0.0043). In treated subjects, the median of viral load levels was significantly higher in CC and CT groups than TT subjects ( p < 0.005). However, analysis of the correlation between CD4 + T-cell levels and PDCD1 polymorphism before and after ART showed no significant difference ( p > 0.05). Our results demonstrated that rs10204525 polymorphism does not affect HIV-1 infection. However, this polymorphism may affect the response to treatment as measured by RNA viral load levels.