Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Vergne, Laurence
• Bourgeois, Anke
• Mpoudi-Ngole, Eitel
• Mougnutou, Rose
• Mbuagbaw, Josephine
• Liegeois, Florian
• Laurent, Christian
• Butel, Christelle
• Zekeng, Léopold
• Delaporte, Eric
• Peeters, Martine

Titel

Biological and genetic characteristics of HIV infections in Cameroon reveals dual group M and O infections and a correlation between SI-inducing phenotype of the predominant CRF02_AG variant and disease stage

Ist Teil von

• Virology (New York, N.Y.), 2003-06, Vol.310 (2), p.254-266

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2003

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In Yaounde, Cameroon, HIV-1 group-specific V3 serology on 1469 HIV-positive samples collected between 1996 and 2001 revealed that group O infections remained constant around 1% for 6 years. Only one group N sample was identified and 4.3% reacted with group M and O peptides. Although the sensitivity of the group-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in two genomic regions was not optimal, we confirmed, in at least 6 of 49 (12.2%) dual O/M seropositive samples and in 1 of 9 group O samples, dual infection with group O and M viruses ( n = 4) or with group O or M virus and an intergroup recombinant virus ( n = 3). Partial env (V3–V5) sequences on a subset of 295 samples showed that at least eight subtypes and five circulating recombinant forms (CRFs) of HIV-1 group M co-circulate; more than 60% were CRF02_AG and 11% had discordant subtype/CRF designations between env and gag. Similarly as for subtype B, the proportion of syncytium-inducing strains increased when CD4 counts were low in CRF02_AG-infected patients. The V3-loop charge was significantly lower for non-syncytium-inducing strains than for syncytium-inducing strains but cannot be used as an individual marker to predict phenotype. The two predominant HIV-1 variants in Africa, CRF02_AG and subtype C, thus have different biological characteristics.