HIV-1 infected Germans have more variations on neck region of DC-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3-grabbing nonintegrin than HIV-1 infected Chinese.

The C-type lectins DC-SIGN and DC-SIGNR bind and transmit HIV-1 depending on the tetramer formed by "neck" region and carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD). Recent studies indicated polymorphisms in neck region of DC-SIGNR were more frequent and associated with susceptibility to HIV-1 infection, whereas no similar trends were observed on DC-SIGN for rare variations of DC-SIGN among the researched subjects in those studies. In our present study, we found 9 genotype variations of DC-SIGN neck region among HIV infected Germans and 3 variations among HIV infected Chinese, respectively. Comparison of those variations between Chinese and Germans reveals strong ethnic discrepancies, and no significant evidence indicates those variations have resistance to susceptibility to HIV-1 infection.