Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Elite suppressors (ES) are untreated HIV-1-infected patients who maintain undetectable viral loads. A recent whole-genome analysis identified two independent polymorphisms associated with low viral loads in untreated HIV-1 infection. We screened 16 ES; none were positive for the protective HLA complex 5 gene polymorphism, and only four were positive for the protective polymorphism associated with the HLA-C gene. These results suggest that some ES control viremia by mechanisms independent of the newly-identified genetic factors.