CD101 Immunoglobulin-like Variants and Cytokine Profiles in the Female Genital Tract: A Confirmatory and Exploratory Analysis with Vaginal Swab Samples from a large cohort of African HIV-1 serodifferent couples

Abstract

Variants in the Ig-like domain of CD101 are associated with an increased risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection. The mechanism through which CD101 influences HIV susceptibility is still unclear. HIV-1 primarily gains access to the host through the genital mucosa after sexual exposure, and analysis of epidemiological and tissue-specific inflammatory factors are critical. We used existing vaginal swab samples and epidemiological data from the Partners PrEP study from HIV-seronegative women (N=89) in heterosexual couples. Genotypes for 12 CD101 SNPs and 28 soluble immune factors were assayed. Based on 4 candidate cytokines from previous work, and to conduct an exploratory analysis on the other cytokines, we ran multivariable linear regression models (frequency of condomless sex, BV, DMPA, and PrEP as covariates) to compare log10 cytokines and chemokine levels to the number of Ig-like variants (copies of alleles). We did not find any significant cytokines at the  < 0.05 for the confirmatory analysis, nor did we find any significant cytokines at the FDR  < 0.05 level in our exploratory analysis.