Drug Discov

Chemokine receptor CCR2 and stromal-derived factor (SDF-1) are involved in HIV infection and AIDS symp-tom onset. Recent cohort studies showed that point mu-tations in these two genes, CCR2-64I and SDF1-30A, can delay AIDS onset>16 years after seroconversions. The protective effect of CCR2-64I is dominant, whereas that of SDF1-30A is recessive. SDF1-30A homozygotes also showed possible protection against HIV-1 infection. In this study, we surveyed the frequency distributions of the two alleles at both loci in world populations, with emphasis on those in east Asia. The CCR2-64I frequen-cies do not vary significantly in the different continents, having a range of 0.1–0.2 in most populations. A de-creasing cline of the CCR2-64I frequency from north to south was observed in east Asia. In contrast, the distri-bution of SDF1-30A in world populations varies sub-stantially, and the highest frequency was observed in Oceanian populations. Moreover, an increasing cline of the SDF1-30A frequency from north to south was ob-served in east Asia. The relative hazard values were com-puted to evaluate the risk of AIDS onset on the basis of two-locus genotypes in the east Asian and world popula-tions