Survey on CCR5-Δ32 mutation in healthy individuals and patients with chronic hepatitis B referred to the clinical laboratory of Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization

CCR5 is one of the most important chemokine receptor involved in the recruitment of specific anti-viral immune cells to the liver. CCR5-Δ32 is a functionally null allele of CCR5 gene with a 32-bp deletion. Several studies have reported that this mutation may be associated with recovery from acute hepatitis B or persistence of HBV infection. The main purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of the Δ32 mutation within the CCR5 gene in a group of chronic HBV infected patients with healthy individuals in Iran. A total of 200 blood samples including 100 healthy individuals and 100 HBsAg positive patients were randomly selected. The samples were tested for HBsAg by ELISA and HBV-DNA by PCR method. Genomic DNA was extracted by salting out method. CCR5-Δ32 mutation was genotyped by PCR with specific primers. The results of this study showed that none of the subjects in the control and patient groups had a 32-bp deletion in the CCR5 gene. CCR5-Δ32 was not a prevalent mutation in control group and HBV infected patients in Iran. No significant difference was observed in genotypes frequency of CCR5-Δ32 between control group and HBV infected patients, therefore it seems that this mutation is not associated with persistence of HBV infection in Iranian patients