PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “HIV evolution”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,009 records · Page 56Linked to original sources

Impact of antiretroviral protocols on dynamics of AIDS progression markers.

AIMS: To assess the "real life" effectiveness of different antiretroviral therapies (ART). METHODS: A retrospective multicentre observational study in 150 HIV-1 vertically infected children on the progression to AIDS (study A), and in 61 HIV-1 infected children on the evolution of the most relevant markers of progression (study B). All children were categorised into four groups: untreated (NT); on monotherapy (MT); on combination therapy (dual-ART); and on potent ART (HAART). RESULTS: No child in the HAART group progressed to AIDS, whereas 14 children in the NT and seven in the MT groups progressed to AIDS, respectively, the differences being statistically significant. There was a mean increase of 8 units of %CD4+ per year; this was greater in the HAART group than in the other groups. The mean decrease in viral load was 0.65 log(10) copies/ml per year; this was greater in the HAART group than in the NT and MT groups. The HAART group had the lowest probability of returning to baseline %CD4+ and viral load. CONCLUSION: Potent ART had the greatest protective effect against progression to AIDS in this observational study.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Structural defects and variations in the HIV-1 nef gene from rapid, slow and non-progressor children.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluation of sequence evolution as well as structural defects and mutations of the human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) nef gene in relation to disease progression in infected children. DESIGN: We examined a large number of nef alleles sequentially derived from perinatally HIV-1-infected children with different rates of disease progression: six non-progressors (NPs), four rapid progressors (RPs), and three slow progressors (SPs). METHODS: Nef alleles (182 total) were isolated from patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), sequenced and analysed for their evolutionary pattern, frequency of mutations and occurrence of amino acid variations associated with different stages of disease. RESULTS: The evolution rate of the nef gene apparently correlated with CD4+ decline in all progression groups. Evidence for rapid viral turnover and positive selection for changes were found only in two SPs and two RPs respectively. In NPs, a higher proportion of disrupted sequences and mutations at various functional motifs were observed. Furthermore, NP-derived Nef proteins were often changed at residues localized in the folded core domain at cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) epitopes (E(105), K(106), E(110), Y(132), K(164), and R(200)), while other residues outside the core domain are more often changed in RPs (A(43)) and SPs (N(173) and Y(214)). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest a link between nef gene functions and the progression rate in HIV-1-infected children. Moreover, non-progressor-associated variations in the core domain of Nef, together with the genetic analysis, suggest that nef gene evolution is shaped by an effective immune system in these patients.

Adolescent↗

Purifying selection of CCR5-tropic human immunodeficiency virus type 1 variants in AIDS subjects that have developed syncytium-inducing, CXCR4-tropic viruses.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection is established by virus variants that use the CCR5 co-receptor for entry (CCR5-tropic or R5 variants), whereas viruses that use CXCR4 as co-receptor (CXCR4-tropic or X4 variants) emerge during disease progression in approximately 50 % of infected subjects. X4 variants may have a higher fitness ex vivo and their detection is usually accompanied by faster T-cell depletion and the onset of AIDS in HIV-1-positive individuals. Here, the relationship between the sequence variation of the HIV-1 env V3-V5 region and positive selective pressure on R5 and X4 variants from infected subjects with CD4 T cell counts below 200 cells microl(-1) was studied. A correlation was found between genetic distance and CD4(+) cell count at late stages of the disease. R5 variants that co-existed with X4 variants were significantly less heterogeneous than R5 variants from subjects without X4 variants (P < 0.0001). Similarly, X4 variants had a significantly higher diversity than R5 variants (P < 0.0001), although residues under positive selection had a similar distribution pattern in both variants. Therefore, both X4 and R5 variants were subjected to high selective pressures from the host. Furthermore, the interaction between X4 and R5 variants within the same subject resulted in a purifying selection on R5 variants, which only survived as a homogeneous virus population. These results indicate that R5 variants from X4 phenotype samples were highly homogeneous and under weakly positive selective pressures. In contrast, R5 variants from R5 phenotype samples were highly heterogeneous and subject to positive selective pressures.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Nef-mediated suppression of T cell activation was lost in a lentiviral lineage that gave rise to HIV-1.

High-level immune activation and T cell apoptosis represent a hallmark of HIV-1 infection that is absent from nonpathogenic SIV infections in natural primate hosts. The mechanisms causing these varying levels of immune activation are not understood. Here, we report that nef alleles from the great majority of primate lentiviruses, including HIV-2, downmodulate TCR-CD3 from infected T cells, thereby blocking their responsiveness to activation. In contrast, nef alleles from HIV-1 and a subset of closely related SIVs fail to downregulate TCR-CD3 and to inhibit cell death. Thus, Nef-mediated suppression of T cell activation is a fundamental property of primate lentiviruses that likely evolved to maintain viral persistence in the context of an intact host immune system. This function was lost during viral evolution in a lineage that gave rise to HIV-1 and may have predisposed the simian precursor of HIV-1 for greater pathogenicity in humans.

Animals↗

Study of the retinal fiber layer in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

A study using the monochromatic photography technique to examine the retina of a group of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in different degrees of evolution and with no history of opportunistic retinal infection revealed the existence of lesions on the level of the retinal nerve fiber layer. The lesions detected included wide, slit-like defects; sector defects; and generalized diffuse atrophies. Both the sector defects and the diffuse atrophies appeared at times to be related to retinal cotton-wool exudates, but at other times they occurred in eyes with no observable retinal pathology. The results of this study can be interpreted as "in vivo" confirmations of the findings obtained by other authors in the postmortem study of optic nerves of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), presenting a generalized degenerative process of the optic nerve with a loss of up to 40% of the axons of the retinal ganglion cells. In some cases, the results obtained in our study directly related the presence of cotton-wool exudates to the production of lesions in the retinal nerve fiber layer, whereas in other cases, the fiber lesions did not appear to be secondary to the cotton-wool exudates. Therefore, a primary lesion of the retinal ganglion cells or of the optic nerve fibers could be considered, as studies by other authors have suggested.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

30 years later--a new approach to Sol Spiegelman's and Leslie Orgel's in vitro evolutionary studies. Dedicated to Leslie Orgel on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

The conditions necessary for evolution are amplification, mutagenesis and selection. Here we describe the evolutionary response of an in vitro replicating system to the selection pressure for fast growth and show what happens to the amplified molecules within this replication system. Our emphasis is on methodology, on the monitoring and the automation of experiments in molecular evolution. In order to perform in vitro studies on the evolution of RNA molecules, a modified self-sustained sequence replication (3SR) method was used. In the first step of the 3SR reaction, the RNA template is reversely transcribed by HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, followed by a second strand synthesis and the transcription of the resulting dsDNA by T7 RNA polymerase. The selection pressure (fast growth) was achieved by applying the principle of serial transfer pioneered in the laboratories of Sol Spiegelman and Leslie Orgel. At the end of the exponential growth phase of the 3SR reaction, an aliquot of the reaction mixture is transferred into a new sample containing only buffer, nucleotides and enzymes while RNA template molecules are provided by the transfer. The conditions in the exponential growth phase allow the RNA molecules to be amplified in a constant environment; all enzymes (HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and T7 RNA polymerase) and nucleotides are present in large excess. Therefore, transferring reproducibly within the exponential growth phase is equivalent to selecting for fast growth; those molecules which can replicate faster will displace others after several transfers. The experiments were performed using a serial transfer apparatus (STA) which allows the nucleic acid concentration to be monitored on-line by measuring the laser-induced fluorescence caused by intercalation of thiazole orange monomers into the RNA/DNA amplification products. The serial transfer experiments were carried out with an RNA template (220b RNA) that represents a 220-base segment of the HIV-1 genome and comprises the in vivo primer binding site (PBS) for the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. It could be shown that after only two serial transfers two RNA species (EP1 and EP2) emerged that were much shorter. EP1 (48b) and EP2 (54b) were formed by deletion mutations within the original 220b RNA template in the very beginning of the serial transfer experiment; due to their higher replication rate (calculated from the growth curves derived on-line) these two deletion mutants displaced the original 220b RNA template in the course of the following thirty transfers. We assume that these two RNA species evolved independently of each other. Their formation was probably induced by a strand-transfer reaction of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. Sequence analyses of these two evolution products seem to confirm such a presented pathway. 30 years after Spiegelman's experiment, the study described here is another answer to the question he posed: 'How do molecules evolve if the only demand is the biblical injunction: multiply?'. The answer, derived from a modified 3SR amplification system (mimicking a part of the HIV-1 replication cycle in vitro), is the same as thirty years ago: The RNA molecules adapt to the new conditions by throwing away any ballast not needed for fast replication. Clearly, this is only one aspect of molecular evolution; however, it shows that we should be careful in designating unidentified genetic material as 'junk DNA'.

Bacteriophage T7↗

Selection for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 recombinants in a patient with rapid progression to AIDS.

Although human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) recombinants have been found with high frequency, little is known about the forces that select for these viruses or their importance to pathogenesis. Here we document the emergence and dynamics of 11 distinct HIV-1 recombinants in a man who was infected with two subtype B HIV-1 strains and progressed rapidly to AIDS without developing substantial cellular or humoral immune responses. Although numerous frequency oscillations were observed, a single recombinant lineage eventually came to dominate the population. Numerical simulations indicate that the successive recombinant forms displaced each other too rapidly to be explained by any simple model of random genetic drift or sampling variation. All of the recombinants, including several resulting from independent recombination events, possessed the same sequence motif in the V3 loop, suggesting intense selection on this segment of the viral envelope protein. The outgrowth of the predominant V3 loop recombinants was not, however, associated with changes in coreceptor utilization. The final variant was instead notable for having lost 3 of 14 potential glycosylation sites. We also observed high ratios of synonymous-to-nonsynonymous nucleotide changes-suggestive of purifying selection-in all viral populations, with particularly high ratios in newly arising recombinants. Our study, therefore, illustrates the unusual and important patterns of viral adaptation that can occur in a patient with weak immune responses. Although it is hard to tease apart cause and effect in a single patient, the correlation with disease progression in this patient suggests that recombination between divergent viruses, with its ability to create chimeras with increased fitness, can accelerate progression to AIDS.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Improved coreceptor usage prediction and genotypic monitoring of R5-to-X4 transition by motif analysis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 env V3 loop sequences.

Early in infection, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) generally uses the CCR5 chemokine receptor (along with CD4) for cellular entry. In many HIV-1-infected individuals, viral genotypic changes arise that allow the virus to use CXCR4 (either in addition to CCR5 or alone) as an entry coreceptor. This switch has been associated with an acceleration of both CD3(+) T-cell decline and progression to AIDS. While it is well known that the V3 loop of gp120 largely determines coreceptor usage and that positively charged residues in V3 play an important role, the process of genetic change in V3 leading to altered coreceptor usage is not well understood. Further, the methods for biological phenotyping of virus for research or clinical purposes are laborious, depend on sample availability, and present biosafety concerns, so reliable methods for sequence-based "virtual phenotyping" are desirable. We introduce a simple bioinformatic method of scoring V3 amino acid sequences that reliably predicts CXCR4 usage (sensitivity, 84%; specificity, 96%). This score (as determined on the basis of position-specific scoring matrices [PSSM]) can be interpreted as revealing a propensity to use CXCR4 as follows: known R5 viruses had low scores, R5X4 viruses had intermediate scores, and X4 viruses had high scores. Application of the PSSM scoring method to reconstructed virus phylogenies of 11 longitudinally sampled individuals revealed that the development of X4 viruses was generally gradual and involved the accumulation of multiple amino acid changes in V3. We found that X4 viruses were lost in two ways: by the dying off of an established X4 lineage or by mutation back to low-scoring V3 loops.

Computational Biology↗

Involvement of novel human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase mutations in the regulation of resistance to nucleoside inhibitors.

We characterized 16 additional mutations in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase (RT) whose role in drug resistance is still unknown by analyzing 1,906 plasma-derived HIV-1 subtype B pol sequences from 551 drug-naïve patients and 1,355 nucleoside RT inhibitor (NRTI)-treated patients. Twelve mutations positively associated with NRTI treatment strongly correlated both in pairs and in clusters with known NRTI resistance mutations on divergent evolutionary pathways. In particular, T39A, K43E/Q, K122E, E203K, and H208Y clustered with the nucleoside analogue mutation 1 cluster (NAM1; M41L+L210W+T215Y). Their copresence in this cluster was associated with an increase in thymidine analogue resistance. Moreover, treatment failure in the presence of K43E, K122E, or H208Y was significantly associated with higher viremia and lower CD4 cell count. Differently, D218E clustered with the NAM2 pathway (D67N+K70R+K219Q+T215F), and its presence in this cluster determined an increase in zidovudine resistance. In contrast, three mutations (V35I, I50V, and R83K) negatively associated with NRTI treatment showed negative correlations with NRTI resistance mutations and were associated with increased susceptibility to specific NRTIs. In particular, I50V negatively correlated with the lamivudine-selected mutation M184V and was associated with a decrease in M184V/lamivudine resistance, whereas R83K negatively correlated with both NAM1 and NAM2 clusters and was associated with a decrease in thymidine analogue resistance. Finally, the association pattern of the F214L polymorphism revealed its propensity for the NAM2 pathway and its strong negative association with the NAM1 pathway. Our study provides evidence of novel RT mutational patterns that regulate positively and/or negatively NRTI resistance and strongly suggests that other mutations beyond those currently known to confer resistance should be considered for improved prediction of clinical response to antiretroviral drugs.

Amino Acid Substitution↗

Biological effect of active anti-IFN alpha immunization in HIV-infected patients.

Circulating interferon (IFN) was investigated in HIV-1 seropositive patients by measuring the IFN alpha antiviral effect in the serum. While serum of healthy seronegative individuals exhibits an antiviral effect, not due to IFNs, considered as background, serum of seropositive patients showed an additional antiviral effect due to the abnormal presence of IFN alpha. Increased titers of IFN alpha were found in the course of the HIV infection and seemed to correlate with the evolution of AIDS disease. Furthermore, patients immunized against IFN alpha had both stabilized CD4 cell count and decreased IFN alpha in their serum. HIV-1-infected patients also exhibited higher titers of natural anti-IFN antibodies than seronegative controls and the level of specific antibodies (Abs) markedly increased in immunized patients. Finally, serum from immunized patients, when compared to seronegative controls, exhibits an interferon neutralizing capacity.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Evolution of the CCR5 Delta32 mutation based on haplotype variation in Jewish and Northern European population samples.

The chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) serves as a fusion cofactor for macrophage-tropic strains of HIV-1. In addition, CCR5 has been shown to mediate the entry of poxviruses into target cells. Individuals homozygous for the Delta32 deletion-mutation have no surface expression of CCR5 and are highly protected against HIV-1 infection. To gain insights into the evolution of the mutation in modern populations, the relatively high frequency of the Delta32-ccr5 allele in some European and Jewish populations is explored here by examining haplotypes of 3p21.3 constructed of five polymorphic marker loci surrounding CCR5. By sampling Ashkenazi, non-Ashkenazi and non-Jewish populations, we utilize the natural experiment that occurred as a consequence of the Jewish Diaspora, and demonstrate that a single mutation was responsible for all copies of Delta32. This mutation must have moved from Northern European populations to the Ashkenazi Jews where evidence suggests that Delta32 carriers of both groups were favored by repeated occurrence of epidemic small pox beginning in the 8th century AD.

Alleles↗

Risk of metabolic abnormalities in patients infected with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy that contains lopinavir-ritonavir.

The evolution of fasting glucose, triglyceride, and total and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level and the factors associated with development of clinically significant abnormalities in these metabolic parameters at 6 months were assessed in 353 consecutive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients who were receiving antiretroviral therapy containing lopinavir-ritonavir. Although glucose and HDL cholesterol levels did not change, triglyceride and total cholesterol levels significantly increased (P<.0001 for each), as did the proportion of patients with a triglyceride level of >400 mg/dL and a total cholesterol level of >240 mg/dL (P=.002). A baseline triglyceride level of >400 mg/dL and a baseline total cholesterol level of >240 mg/dL were identified as independent factors predicting clinically significant hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia, respectively, at 6 months. These findings may have clinical implications when the therapeutic option of lopinavir-ritonavir is considered.

Adult↗

The cost of replication fidelity in human immunodeficiency virus type 1.

Mutation rates should be governed by at least three evolutionary factors: the need for beneficial mutations, the benefit of minimizing the mutational load and the cost of replication fidelity. RNA viruses show high mutation rates compared with DNA micro-organisms, and recent findings suggest that the cost of fidelity might play a role in the evolution of increased mutation rates. Here, by analysing previously published data from HIV-1 reverse transcriptase in vitro assays, we show a trade-off between enzymatic accuracy and the maximum rate of polymerization, thus providing a biochemical basis for the fitness cost of fidelity in HIV-1. This trade-off seems to be related to inefficient extension of mispairs, which increases fidelity at the expense of the polymerization rate. Since in RNA viruses fast replication is critical for survival, this could impose a high cost of fidelity and favour the evolution of high mutation rates.

DNA, Viral↗

[Human immunodeficiency virus associated arthritis in Congo Brazzaville].

OBJECTIVE: The authors report epidemiologic, clinical, para clinical, and evolutive aspects of arthritis related to HIV in an AIDS endemic country. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective study was made in the rheumatology department of the Brazzaville University Teaching Hospital during 15 years and 6 months, on 3.042 in-patients among whom 306 (10%) were positive for HIV, 220 (7.2%) presented with a rheumatologic manifestation, and 158 (71.8%) with HIV related arthritis. RESULTS: The 158 patients included 91 men (57.6%), 67 women (42.4%), average 34.5 years of age, ranging from 15 to 61, all heterosexual. 99 patients (62.7%) were in the B stage, 40 (25.3%) in the C stage, and 19 (12.2%) in the A stage. Arthritis was polyarthritis (83.5%) or oligoarthritis (16.5%), symmetrical (97.5%), prevailing on the lower limbs (99.3%) with involvement of the great toe in 23% of cases. There was an important inflammatory syndrome with an erythrocyte sedimentation rate exceeding 100 mm for the 1st hour in 63.3% of the cases. Rhumatoid factors were negative. Synovial fluid was sterile, without microcrystals, and inflammatory. X-rays were normal. This non-destructive arthritis, evolved by successive bouts, and resolved in 2 to 5 weeks with NSAIDs and did not meet Amor nor European spondyloarthropathy criteria. CONCLUSION: Arthritis related to HIV represents the principal expression of nonseptic rheumatologic HIV manifestations in Congo.

Adolescent↗

Distinct patterns of natural selection in the reverse transcriptase gene of HIV-1 in the presence and absence of antiretroviral therapy.

The emergence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drug-resistant mutations during antiretroviral therapy is explained by either the preexistence of low-frequency-resistant strains before the start of therapy or by the selection of unsuppressed resistant strains during therapy. We used pairwise and maximum likelihood analyses of the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions per site (d(N)/d(S)) to study the extent of positive selection in the reverse transcriptase (RT) gene of HIV-1 from multiple data sets of drug-treated (117 sequences) and drug-naive patients (270 sequences). In the pairwise analysis, evidence for positive selection (d(N)/d(S) > 1) was only found in drug-treated individuals and in codons conferring drug resistance. By the maximum likelihood method, a positive selection at codons conferring drug resistance was only observed in patients receiving therapy, and although positive selection was detected in drug-naive patients, this was always at codons unrelated to drug resistance. We therefore document a striking difference in the process of allele fixation in drug resistance codons (RC) between populations of HIV-1-infected individuals naive to treatment and those receiving therapy. Furthermore, although mutations associated with drug resistance are sometimes found in drug-naive patients, we suggest that these are fixed because of linkage to sites experiencing immune escape. Finally, we show that compensatory changes are likely to be important in the development of HIV drug resistance by counter-acting the deleterious effects normally associated with drug resistance mutations.

Amino Acid Sequence↗