Abstract
HIV-1 prevalence in Guangxi, China, has been growing since 1996, when the first case was reported. Over half of HIV-1 positive patients in Guangxi Province were injecting drug users (IDUs), possibly because of the province’s location near drug-trafficking routes. Since a phase II HIV vaccine trial is ongoing there, a current characterization of the subtypes of HIV-1 among IDUs in Guangxi would provide critical information for future HIV vaccine trials, as well as further control and prevention of HIV-1 transmission. Thus, we conducted a molecular epidemiological investigation of HIV-1 samples from 2008–2010 among IDUs in multiple cities in Guangxi Province. Our results, based on the gag/pol fragment, indicated a very high proportion (78.47%) of HIV-1 CRF08_BC recombinants, some CRF01_AE (15.38%) recombinants, and a low proportion of CRF07_BC (6.15%) recombinants among the IDUs. The high proportion of CRF08 HIV-1 strains among recent IDUs matches the vaccine candidate constructs. However, future vaccine development should also incorporate CRF01-targeted vaccine candidates. Distinct Env sequence evolution patterns were observed for CRF08_BC and CRF01_AE, indicating that different local selection pressures have been exerted on these two HIV-1 subtypes. Unique drug-resistant mutations were also detected, and our data indicate that HIV treatment programs should consider pre-existing drug-resistant mutations.
Highlights
Human immunodefiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection has continued to be a global epidemic problem since its discovery in the early 1980s [1]
Anti-HIV drugs are divided into three categories: Protease inhibitors (PIs) target HIV-1 protease, whereas both nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) target the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase
Epidemiological Information for Selected injecting drug users (IDUs) Patients In total, 65 HIV-1 positive patients were selected from Beihai, Baise, and Nanning cities from Guangxi province on the basis of the following two criteria: being an IDU and being anti-HIV-1 treatment-naıve
Summary
Human immunodefiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection has continued to be a global epidemic problem since its discovery in the early 1980s [1]. Guangxi Province experienced one of earliest and heaviest epidemics of HIV in China [3,4,5]. Two major circulating HIV-1 strains, CRF08 BC and CRF01 AE, have been reported in Guangxi and have been selected for HIV-1 vaccine development [6,7,8]. Dozens of amino acid residues of HIV-1 have been confirmed to be selectively mutated by antiviral drugs, and mutations in these residues give rise to HIV-1 strains resistant to certain drug(s). Screening these residues could provide critical information for antiviral treatment
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