The Effect of rs7975232 (ApaI) and rs731236 (TaqI) VDR Polymorphisms on HIV/AIDS Prevalence and Mortality: An International Population Genetics Analysis

In this study, the relationship between the allele and genotype frequencies of the rs7975232 (ApaI) and rs731236 (TaqI) polymorphisms of the vitamin D receptor ( VDR ) gene and country-based HIV/AIDS prevalence and mortality rates were examined using Spearman rank correlation analyses. These Spearman analyses were validated for significance using the False Discovery Rate (FDR) method, considering traditional criteria (Adjusted p -value <.05). The findings revealed that ApaI_CC and TaqI_TT genotype frequencies showed weak inverse correlations with HIV/AIDS prevalence and mortality rates (ρ ≈ –0.30 and –0.25); however, these correlations were not statistically significant after FDR correction ( p _adj > 0.05). These results suggest that VDR polymorphisms showed no statistically significant association with HIV/AIDS epidemiology in this ecological analysis; at most, these findings generate a population-level hypothesis that vitamin D–mediated immune responses may warrant further study. These findings should be regarded as exploratory and hypothesis-generating, and may inform future individual-level genotype–phenotype and functional studies.