Investigation of the frequency of the mutant CCR5-Δ32 allele related to HIV resistance in Turkey

Aim: To determine the frequency with which the CCR5-Δ32 mutant allele caused resistance to HIV, which is main agent of AIDS in all geographic regions of Turkey. Materials and methods: Randomly selected human blood samples from 400 healthy individuals were collected. The polymerase chain reaction method was used to determine the CCR5-Δ32 polymorphism and samples were screened using 2 primers. Results: The frequency of wild alleles was found to be 0.9738 and the frequency of mutant alleles was found to be 0.0262. The highest frequency of the CCR5-Δ32 allele was found to be 0.0726 in the Central Anatolia region. The lowest frequency of the CCR5-Δ32 allele was found to be 0.0093 in the Southeast Anatolia and the Mediterranean regions. The mutant allele was not observed in any individuals from the Marmara region. Homozygosity was not observed in terms of this mutant allele in the individuals studied. Conclusion: According to the data obtained from this study, the frequency of CCR5-Δ32, except for in the Marmara region, showed parallelism with a decrease consistent with a north-south direction across the world. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of the CCR5-Δ32 allele, which is important for the evaluation of samples that are representative of all the geographic regions of Turkey.