Diversity of envelope glycoprotein from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 of recent seroconverters in Thailand.
The envelope-coding sequence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) was determined for 11 Thai seroconverters between 1995 and 1996. On the basis of the env sequences, all subjects were infected with HIV subtype E. Compared with the interpatient protein diversity among HIV-1 Thai reference sequences from 1990 to 1992 (4.4%), the diversity among the 1995-1996 seroconverters was approximately double (9.5%). The tetrapeptide tip of the V3 loop was invariant for 10 of the 11 seroconverters, and identical to that observed in sequences derived from the 1990-1992 group. However, in the V3 region, sequences from 2 of the 11 subjects demonstrated more than 5 amino acid changes relative to the reference strains. This may represent the "aging" of the HIV epidemic seen in other endemic regions. These findings may have substantial implications for vaccine development and evaluation for both HIV antibody and cytotoxic T lymphocyte repertoire recognition.
McCutchan
F E
FE
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Rockville, Maryland 20850, USA.
Viputtigul
K
K
de Souza
M S
MS
Carr
J K
JK
Markowitz
L E
LE
Buapunth
P
P
McNeil
J G
JG
Robb
M L
ML
Nitayaphan
S
S
Birx
D L
DL
Brown
A E
AE
D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D019302:HIV Envelope Protein gp160 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013785:Thailand
D015483:HIV Antibodies; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120; D019302:HIV Envelope Protein gp160; C059762:HIV envelope protein gp120 (305-321); D010446:Peptide Fragments