HIV type 1 group M clades infecting subjects from rural villages in equatorial rain forests of Cameroon.
Though the HIV-1 subtypes infecting patients living in urban and semi-urban areas in Cameroon have been reported, information on the subtypes infecting patients in rural villages is lacking. To begin to understand the diversity of the HIV-1 group M subtypes infecting persons living in rural villages in the equatorial rain forest regions of Cameroon, 49 plasma samples from 14 rural villages in four provinces of Cameroon were analyzed using heteroduplex mobility analysis (HMA), DNA sequencing, and phylogenetic tree analysis on the basis of env C2V5, gag, or pol regions. Sixty-one percent of the group M infections were clade A or CRF02_AG-like as subtyped by env and gag. Of the remaining group M infections, 12% were either A or CRF02_AG-like or CRF01_AE-like in recombination with other clades; 25% were infections that were entirely non-A or non-CRF02_AG-like; and 2% were CRF11_cpx. The HIV-1 group M clades identified included A, D, F (F2), G, and H. The CRF strains identified were CRF02_AG-like, CRF01_AE-like, and CRF11_cpx. Two new intersubtype recombinant infections, H/G and A/F2, were identified. This study suggests that the HIV-1 diversity in rural villages in the equatorial rain forest of Cameroon is at least as broad as has been observed in major cities of Cameroon and that multiple HIV-1 group M subtypes are infecting persons living in the countryside of Cameroon.
Zhong
Ping
P
Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Burda
Sherri
S
Urbanski
Mateusz
M
Kenfack
Henriette
H
Tongo
Marcel
M
Heyndrickx
Leo
L
Nanfack
Aubin
A
Shang
Judith
J
Agyingi
Lucy
L
Zolla-Pazner
Susan
S
Zekeng
Leopold
L
Nyambi
Phillipe
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002163:Cameroon / Q000453:epidemiology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020180:Heteroduplex Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012423:Rural Health
D012367:RNA, Viral