Fc-gamma receptor IIA and IIIA variants in two African cohorts: Lack of consistent impact on heterosexual HIV acquisition, viral control, and disease progression

Human Fc-gamma receptors (FcγRs) FcγRIIA and FcγRIIIA contain amino acid variants with both high and low affinities for IgG that modulate antibody-mediated effector functions. Recent HIV vaccine trials suggested that these FcγR variants can influence susceptibility to HIV infection, which prompted us to fully assess the role of FcγR variants on HIV acquisition, viral control, and disease progression in two longitudinal heterosexual transmission cohorts with HIV subtypes A and C as the major circulating viruses. For 836 participants, molecular genotyping resolved genetic variations encoding the FcγRIIA (131 H/R) and FcγRIIIA (158 V/F) single nucleotide polymorphisms. Kaplan-Meier curves, Cox proportional hazards models, and linear regression models did not reveal any clear or consistent FcγR association with time to HIV acquisition, viral load in early infection, or extent of CD4 + T-cell decline over time after infection. Overall, previous epidemiological findings on FcγR variants and vaccine efficacy are not readily applicable to heterosexual HIV transmission.