Executive Summary : | The BST-2 gene was screened among two group i.e. HIV progressors and LTNPs. Various novel ariants were observed among the HIV infected Indian population. In case of Exons, two variants were observed only in Exon 5, remaining fourexon sequences completely matched the wild type sequence. Changes observed lead to non-synonymous polymorphism, as the changed nucleotide code for different amino acids; one from Lysine to glutamine and other from Alanine to Glycine. In case of Introns, except intron 2 remaining three introns had atleast onevariant present. In all, a total of five intron variants were observed. Intron 4 and Exon 5 showed maximum variants. Though there were various variants obtained among the Indian population when compared with the wild type sequence, but comparing the data between both the groups, no significant changes in the variant occurrence were observed. It is difficult to relate the variants with disease progression as the study was carried out among small diseased population. Increased sample population needs to be screened for a proper statistical data and correlation with the diseaseprogression. -443 Ins corresponds to additional AP2 repressor binding site in BST-2 promoter. Absence of -443 Ins in LTNPs indicates that BST-2 expression might be one of the contributory factors for slow disease progression in LTNPs. This is the first genomic study carried out among the HIV infected Indian population on HIV host restriction factor tetherin. |