In Vitro Whole-Genome Analysis Identifies A Susceptibility Locus For HIV-1

Main Category: Genetics
Also Included In: HIV / AIDS;  Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 19 Feb 2008 - 17:00 PDT

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Individuals differ in their susceptibility to the HIV-1 virus and the determinants of susceptibility are encoded in the human genome. Genetic variants influencing this trait have been identified by investigating candidate genes thought likely to be involved in HIV-1 pathogenesis or by whole genome association studies, which type more than 500,000 genetic variants per individual (genome-wide association studies) to see which ones associate with susceptibility.

This week in the online open-access journal PLoS Biology, Corinne Loeuillet, Stylianos Antonarakis, and Amalio Telenti show how they have addressed the issue of identification of new genetic variants influencing susceptibility to HIV-1 by a novel strategy based on the in vitro infection of cells.

For this, immortalized B lymphocytes from 15 families (198 cell lines) were infected by a HIV-based vector. Differences in cellular susceptibility to infection-a genetic trait-could be mapped to a precise region on chromosome 8, suggesting a role of the LY6 family of GPI-anchored proteins in HIV-1 infection.

Genetic analysis of in vitro standardized cellular phenotypes provides a new approach to the discovery of the basis of genetic susceptibility to infectious agents.

In vitro whole-genome analysis identifies a susceptibility locus for HIV-1
Loeuillet C, Deutsch S, Ciuffi A, Robyr D, Taffe´ P, et al.
PLoS Biol 6(2): e32. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060032
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