Subtype and sequence analysis of HIV-1 strains in Heilongjiang Province.
BACKGROUND
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) is divided into two types, HIV-1 (groups M, N and O) and HIV-2. Heilongjiang Province located in the northeast of China, and the feature of the subtype distribution and sequence characteristics of HIV-1 strains prevalent in Heilongjiang Province is still uncertain. The aim of this study was to investigate the subtype distribution and genetic characteristics of HIV-1 strains in one hospital in Heilongjiang Province.


METHODS
HIV-1 env gene was amplified by nested-PCR from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from 19 HIV-1 seropositive individuals in Heilongjiang Province. The C2-V3 region was sequenced. Aligned the nucleotide sequence of 19 samples with CLUSTAL W (BioEdit) software, results were acquired and used for phylogenetic tree analysis after artificial adjustment. Reference sequence, downloaded from Los Alamos HIV Sequence Database, was used to identify the subtype of obtained sequence. Genetic distance between sequences was assessed using the software MEGA 3.1 Kimura 2-parameter, and the Phylogenetic tree was reestablished with Neighbor-Joining method.


RESULTS
Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that 19 Heilongjiang strains clustered closely to subtype B strain from Thailand and were far from other international subtype reference strains. Statistical test showed no significant discrepancy between the genetic distance of interclass and intra-class (P > 0.05). The analysis of V3 loop amino sequence of 19 Heilongjiang B strains revealed that V3 tip motif of 10 samples (52.63%) was GPGQ, and of 4 samples (21.53%) was GPGR.


CONCLUSIONS
The subtype of 19 HIV-1 seropositive individuals in Heilongjiang Province is B', and it is introduced from He'nan Province. V3 tip motifs of the HIV-1 isolates are mainly GPGQ and GPGR.
Wang
Fu-xiang
FX
Department of Infectious Diseases, First Clinical College of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
Zhou
Hui
H
Ling
Hong
H
Zhou
Hai-zhou
HZ
Liu
Wei-hua
WH
Shao
Yi-ming
YM
Zhou
Jin
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D005260:Female; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120 / Q000737:chemistry; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry; D010802:Phylogeny
D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120; C059762:HIV envelope protein gp120 (305-321); D010446:Peptide Fragments