This article is part of the supplement: Frontiers of Retrovirology: Complex retroviruses, retroelements and their hosts
Invited speaker presentation
Host genome influences on susceptibility to HIV-1
Retrovirology 2009, 6(Suppl 2):I6 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-6-S2-I6
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.retrovirology.com/content/6/S2/I6
| Published: | 24 September 2009 |
© 2009 Telenti; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Invited speaker presentation
In vitro and in vivo analyses identified a significant component of heritability in cellular or host susceptibility to HIV-1. The bases for susceptibility can be traced to genetic differences (inter-species) resulting from evolutionary adaptation to exogenous (and endogenous) retroviral infections, and to intra-species and inter-individual (human) differences associated with genetic variation. We have completed large scale evolutionary analysis of genes involved in HIV life cycle and pathogenesis, as well as participating and conducting genome-wide association studies, linkage analysis, and transcriptome analysis. These studies allowed a better understanding of the influence of common human variants in HIV-1 susceptibility and define a number of experimental challenges in the filed: understanding of the role of rare and private mutations in susceptibility, and the development of better tools for the integration of data from large-scale studies.