Objective To determine the polymorphism in CXC chemokine SDF-1α transcript and its effects on HIV infection.Methods Three groups of study subjects lived in Hang Kong were recruited:278 HIV-heahhy donors of Chinese origin.49 HIV+Caucasians and 13 Chinese with high risk behavior to HIV but kept uninfected.Genomic DNA and RNA were extracted from eripheral blood mononucleal cell. The PCR and RT-PCR reaction were set up accordingly.Sequence of the SDF-1α promoter,the open reading frame(ORF)and the 3'untranslate region(3'UTR)were analyzed.Two steps PCR reaction using two reverseprimers with mismatched nucleic acid were employed to screen the frequency of a novel mutation. Results equencing analysis from 100 subjects indicated that non mutation happened in tlle promoter and ORF of SDF-1α.A novel mutation Was detected from 3'UTR of SDF-1α.It is a "GA" insertion in "G" rich region near the stop code of SDF-1α.The mutation Was named as SDF-1-3’GA+and submitted to GenBank (AY874118).The mutation happened in three roups.with allele frequency of 15.1% in the healthy Chinese.of 30.7% in the high risk Chinese group.Conclusions our results confirm that SDF-1 genes arerelatively conserved.None noteworthy mutation is identified in the promoter and ORF regions of SDF-1α However.a novel mutation is identified from the 3'UTR of SDF-1α. It would be worthwhile to etermine effect of the novel mutation on HIV infection.

OBJECTIVETo study the prevalence of skin positivity to purified protein derivative (PPD) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients in Hong Kong.

METHODSConsecutive clients of an HIV clinic were administered the PPD test and 2 units of PPD-RT23 were used. The area of induration was then measured in 48 to 72 h. Results were related to patient characteristics and HIV-related parameters.

RESULTSEight (17.0%) out of 47 clients tested positive to the administration of 2 units of PPD-RT23. If the cutoff were raised to 10 mm according to current practice, only two (4.3%) would test positive.

CONCLUSIONThe prevalence of PPD positivity in HIV-infected patients in Hong Kong is 17%, when a cutoff of 5 mm is used. This figure may form the basis for further studies on the utility of isoniazid preventive therapy in this group of patients.

Adult ; Aged ; BCG Vaccine ; immunology ; Female ; HIV Infections ; complications ; immunology ; Humans ; Isoniazid ; therapeutic use ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prevalence ; Tuberculin Test ; Tuberculosis ; prevention & control