Legacy of a magic gene-CCR5-∆32: From discovery to clinical benefit in a generation.

Abstract excerpt

The discovery of the 32-bp deletion allele of the chemokine receptor gene CCR5 showed that homozygous carriers display near-complete resistance to HIV infection, irrespective of exposure. Algorithms of molecular evolutionary theory suggested that the CCR5-∆32 mutation occurred but once in the last millennium and rose by strong selective pressure relatively recently to a ~10% allele frequency in Europeans. Several...

Topics

• Humans
• HIV Infections
• Gene Frequency
• Receptors, CCR5
• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Mutation
• Homozygote