Apolipoprotein B Gene Polymorphisms and Dyslipidemia in HIV Infected Adult Zimbabweans

BACKGROUND: Dyslipidemia does not occur in all HIV-infected or antiretroviral therapy-experienced patients suggesting role of host genetic factors but there is paucity of data on association between dyslipidemia and gene polymorphisms in Zimbabwe. OBJECTIVE: To determine association of lipoprotein levels and apolipoprotein B polymorphisms in HIV-infected adults. METHOD: Demographic data were collected from 103 consenting patients; lipoprotein levels were determined and blood samples were successfully genotyped for both apolipoprotein B 2488C>T Xba1 and apolipoprotein B 4154G>A p.Gln4154Lys EcoR1 polymorphisms by real time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Mean age of genotyped patients was 40.3 ± 10.1 years, 68% were female; prevalence of dyslipidemia was 67.4%. Of 103 samples genotyped for apolipoprotein B Xba1 polymorphism, 76 (74%) were homozygous C/C, 24 (23%) were heterozygous C/T and only three (3%) were homozygous T/T. Apolipoprotein B EcoR1 polymorphism showed little variability, one participant had rare genotype A/A, 68.3% had wild type genotype G/G. CONCLUSION: Observed frequencies of apolipoprotein B XbaI and EcoRI polymorphisms matched other African studies. In spite of low numbers of rare variants, there was positive association between both total cholestrol and high density lipoprotein with ECoR1 wild type G/G genotype, suggesting that ECoRI 4154 G allele could be more protective against coronary heart disease than EcoR1 4154 A allele. There is need for further research at population level to confirm whether apolipoprotein B ECoR1 genotyping is useful for predicting risk of dyslipidemia in HIV patients in our setting.