Gene Polymorphisms and Dyslipidemia in HIV Infected Adult Zimbabweans.

BACKGROUND

Dyslipidemia does not occur in all HIV-infected or antiretroviral therapy-experienced patients suggesting role of host genetic factors but there is paucity of data on association between dyslipidemia and gene polymorphisms in Zimbabwe.

OBJECTIVE

To determine association of lipoprotein levels and polymorphisms in HIV-infected adults.

METHOD

Demographic data were collected from 103 consenting patients; lipoprotein levels were determined and blood samples were successfully genotyped for both 2488C>T Xba1 and 4154G>A p.Gln4154Lys EcoR1 polymorphisms by real time polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS

Mean age of genotyped patients was 40.3 ± 10.1 years, 68% were female; prevalence of dyslipidemia was 67.4%. Of 103 samples genotyped for Xba1 polymorphism, 76 (74%) were homozygous C/C, 24 (23%) were heterozygous C/T and only three (3%) were homozygous T/T. EcoR1 polymorphism showed little variability, one participant had rare genotype A/A, 68.3% had wild type genotype G/G.

CONCLUSION

Observed frequencies of XbaI and EcoRI polymorphisms matched other African studies. In spite of low numbers of rare variants, there was positive association between both total cholestrol and high density lipoprotein with ECoR1 wild type G/G genotype, suggesting that ECoRI 4154 G allele could be more protective against coronary heart disease than EcoR1 4154 A allele. There is need for further research at population level to confirm whether ECoR1 genotyping is useful for predicting risk of dyslipidemia in HIV patients in our setting.