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Abstract
Opportunistic infections are the main cause of morbidity and death among HIV-positive patients. Most of these infections are linked to the immunodeficiency due to low CD4+ counts. However, not all patients with low CD4+ counts are equally susceptible to infections, and we hypothesize that variability in genes of innate immunity may also play an important role. The dectin-1/CARD9 pathway is crucial for recognition of both fungal and bacterial pathogens. The aim of this study was to assess the possible association between the occurrence of opportunistic infections and single nucleotide polymorphisms in DECTIN-1 and CARD9 in a cohort of 187 HIV-infected patients. The incidence of oropharyngeal candidiasis and other opportunistic infections was not influenced by either the Y238X DECTIN-1 or the S12N CARD9 polymorphism. Surprisingly however, the prevalence of pneumonia was significantly higher in patients bearing the defective variant DECTIN-1 allele. These results suggest a role of dectin-1 in the host defense against respiratory bacterial infections, and future studies are warranted to confirm this association.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
D.C.R. was funded by the European Commission through the FINSysB Marie Curie Initial Training Network (PITN-GA-2008-214004). This study was partially supported by a Vici grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research to MGN. All authors had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.