The authors studied the possible association between the presence of a 32-base pair deletion allele in CC chemokine receptor 5 gene [3p21] (CCR5 Delta 32 allele) and the occurrence of MS. The presence of CCR5 Delta 32 homozygotes among patients with MS indicates that the absence of CCR5 did not protect against MS. Moreover, the CCR5 Delta 32 mutation was associated with MS in HLA-DR4-positive Russians (p(corr) < 0.001, odds ratio [OR] = 25.0). The (CCR5 Delta 32,DR4)-positive phenotype was negatively associated with early MS onset (at ages < or = 18 years) (p = 0.0115, OR = 0.1).