A 19-year-old intravenous drug user has regularly sought human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing, always with negative results. He admits to carelessly sharing needles on multiple occasions with individuals later found to be HIV-positive. He has heard that there is an inherited genetic basis for some people to be relatively "immune" to HIV infection. The genetic change that he is referring to is a mutation in a gene coding for which of the following proteins?
High-Yield Explanation
Either of two coreceptors, CCR5 or CXCR4, is involved in the initial binding of the virus to the cell surface molecule gp120 on CD4+ cells. It is of considerable interest that ceain mutations in the CCR5 gene are associated with total resistance to infection with some common strains of HIV. Homozygotes are totally resistant, and heterozygotes develop a more slowly progressive disease.