1. The predominance of Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) circulating recombinant form 02 (CRF02_AG) in West Central Africa may be related to its replicative fitness
- Author
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Martine Peeters, Harr Freeya Njai, Wim Jennes, Claude Clybergh, Guido Vanham, Youssef Gali, Kevin K. Ariën, Christelle Butel, Nicole Vidal, and Eitel Mpoudi-Ngolle
- Subjects
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes ,lcsh:Immunologic diseases. Allergy ,Virus replication ,Africa, West ,T cell ,Viral fitness ,Strains ,HIV Infections ,Biology ,DENDRITIC CELLS ,SUBTYPE-G ,law.invention ,Cohort Studies ,Multiplicity of infection ,MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY ,law ,Virology ,INFECTION ,medicine ,Humans ,Africa, Central ,Cameroon ,Cells, Cultured ,Phylogeny ,Tropism ,GROUP-O ,Molecular epidemiology ,Sequence Analysis, RNA ,Research ,DISEASE PROGRESSION ,Biology and Life Sciences ,virus diseases ,Dendritic Cells ,In vitro ,INTRAVAGINAL INOCULATION ,Infectious Diseases ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Viral replication ,HIV-1 ,CAMEROON ,T-CELLS ,Recombinant DNA ,biology.protein ,GENETIC DIVERSITY ,CRF02_AG ,Antibody ,lcsh:RC581-607 - Abstract
Background CRF02_AG is the predominant HIV strain circulating in West and West Central Africa. The aim of this study was to test whether this predominance is associated with a higher in vitro replicative fitness relative to parental subtype A and G viruses. Primary HIV-1 isolates (10 CRF02_AG, 5 subtype A and 5 subtype G) were obtained from a well-described Cameroonian cohort. Growth competition experiments were carried out at equal multiplicity of infection in activated T cells and monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MO-DC) in parallel. Results Dual infection/competition experiments in activated T cells clearly indicated that CRF02_AG isolates had a significant replication advantage over the subtype A and subtype G viruses. The higher fitness of CRF02_AG was evident for isolates from patients with CD4+ T cell counts >200 cells/μL (non-AIDS) or CD4+ T cell counts Conclusion We observed a higher ex vivo replicative fitness of CRF02_AG isolates compared to subtype A and G viruses from the same geographic region and showed that this was independent of the co-receptor tropism and irrespective of high or low CD4+ T cell count. This advantage in replicative fitness may contribute to the dominant spread of CRF02_AG over A and G subtypes in West and West Central Africa.
- Published
- 2006