title: Host and viral genetic correlates of clinical definitions of HIV-1 disease progression.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Various patterns of HIV-1 disease progression are described in clinical practice and in research. There is a need to assess the specificity of commonly used definitions of long term non-progressor (LTNP) elite controllers (LTNP-EC), viremic controllers (LTNP-VC), and viremic non controllers (LTNP-NC), as well as of chronic progressors (P) and rapid progressors (RP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We re-evaluated the HIV-1 clinical definitions, summarized in Table 1, using the information provided by a selected number of host genetic markers and viral factors. There is a continuous decrease of protective factors and an accumulation of risk factors from LTNP-EC to RP. Statistical differences in frequency of protective HLA-B alleles (p-0.01), HLA-C rs9264942 (p-0.06), and protective CCR5/CCR2 haplotypes (p-0.02) across groups, and the presence of viruses with an ancestral genotype in the "viral dating" (i.e., nucleotide sequences with low viral divergence from the most recent common ancestor) support the differences among principal clinical groups of HIV-1 infected individuals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A combination of host genetic and viral factors supports current clinical definitions that discriminate among patterns of HIV-1 progression. The study also emphasizes the need to apply a standardized and accepted set of clinical definitions for the purpose of disease stratification and research.
authors.affiliation: Centro Nacional de Microbiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Concepción
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Casado
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Colombo
authors.forename: Andri
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rauch
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Huldrych F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Günthard
authors.forename: Soledad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Del Romero
authors.forename: Amalio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Telenti
authors.forename: Cecilio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: López-Galíndez
mesh_terms: D018450:Disease Progression; D015752:Genes, env; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D020276:HIV Long-Term Survivors; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D054390:Receptors, CCR2 / Q000235:genetics; D019713:Receptors, CCR5 / Q000235:genetics; D012307:Risk Factors; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: C515334:CCR2 protein, human; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D054390:Receptors, CCR2; D019713:Receptors, CCR5