Lack of Differences in HIV-1 Nef Functional Domains in Infected Chinese Blood Donors at Different Stages of Disease

Abstract

HIV-1 nef regions were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced from DNA samples of five asymptomatic subjects and five AIDS patients from a cohort of HIV-1-infected Chinese plasma and blood donors. Sequence analysis revealed that regardless of the stage of disease, each patient's HIV-1 nef sequences belonged to the clade B' subtype. Although there are some differences between the sequences from different patients, no significant differences have been detected in nef nucleotide sequences or functional motifs in the deduced amino acid sequences from patients at different stages of the disease. Furthermore, the predicted binding motifs of HLA-A2 and HLA-A11 were highly conserved among patient nef sequences. These results will contribute to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of circulating HIV-1 in infected Chinese former blood donors and may have important implications in developing an epitope-based vaccine suitable for Chinese blood donors.

Molecular Characterization of the HIV Type 1vprGene in Infected Chinese Former Blood/Plasma Donors at Different Stages of Diseases

“…No significant differences have been detected in nef nucleotide sequences or functional motifs with different disease stages. 5 However, the C2-C5 sequences in the env region from AIDS patients clustered differently from those longterm nonprogressors (LTNPs) in the phylogenetic tree and showed a significantly higher divergence and lower diversity compared to those from the LTNP subjects. 4 In addition, env sequences from AIDS patients carry more syncytia-inducing (SI) viral genotypes than those present in LTNP subjects.…”