Full-Length Sequences of Two CRF01_AE (Subtype E) HIV Type 1 Isolates from 1995 Samples of Patients with Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Thailand

Abstract

We isolated two CRF01_AE human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (95TNIH022 and 95TNIH047) from the 1995 blood samples derived from asymptomatic carriers in Ubonratchatani province of northeastern Thailand. Both isolates can replicate in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, but not in several T cell lines examined. The full-length sequences recovered from proviruses in infected cells by long-range polymerase chain reaction were determined. Phylogenetic analyses of these sequences at individual genes showed them to be closely related to those of reported CRF01_AE HIV-1, such as 1990 isolate CM240 and 1993 isolate 93TH253. Two isolates in this study also showed a similar pattern of CRF01_AE mosaicism and a similar structure at the long terminal repeat, i.e., a copy number of NF-kappaB binding sites, sequence at the TATA box, and the putative secondary structure of stem-loop in the transactivation response region. Our results showed that 1995 Thai E isolates could contribute to our understanding of the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and diagnostics of HIV-1 CRF01_AE and further to vaccine development.

The Vpu Protein of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Plays a Protective Role against Virus-Induced Apoptosis in Primary CD4+T Lymphocytes

“…HIV-1 laboratory strains NL4-3 (CXCR4 tropic; derived from molecular clone pNL4-3) and Ba-L (CCR5 tropic), both of which are subtype B, were used as controls. A total of 12 HIV-1 primary isolates were used: 5 (0-55-1, 0-4-26, 0-63-1, 17-7-5, and 17-3-6) belonged to subtype B, and 7 (95TNIH022 EMBL accession number AB032740] [3], 95TNIH047 [EMBL accession number AB032741] [3], CU98-28, CU98-26, CU98-29, CU98-31, and 0-47-1) belonged to CRF01_AE (27). HIV-1 vpu mutants derived from infectious molecular clone pNL4-3 (1)-pNL4-3(NL-vpu-TM), pNL4-3(022-vpu-TM), and pNL4-3(⌬vpu), which were prepared as described below-were also used.…”