title: Sequence variations of Env signal peptide alleles in different clinical stages of HIV infection.
abstract: The human immunodeficiency virus has been shown to increase its infectivity throughout the course of infection. This virus selection property has been associated with genome mutations and recombinations among virus variants, causing amino acid residue alterations in important viral proteins. In order to explore the contribution of Env signal peptide (Env-sp) to Env glycoprotein expression and its possible relationship to increased virus infectivity observed at late stages of infection, we characterized Env-sp sequences derived from twelve patients at "early" and "late" stages of HIV infection without antiretroviral therapy use. In spite of the remarkable overall similarity between both stages, we observed the deletion of a sequence of neutral and basic residues at the Env-sp amino terminus in virus from early stage specimens and the insertion of basic residues in the hydrophobic region on late-stage viral isolates. The Env-sp sequence alterations may have viral adaptive functions during HIV infection.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Faculty of Health Science, University of Brasília, Brasilia, DF 70910-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Joaquim Xavier
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Octávio Luiz
authors.initials: OL
authors.lastname: Franco
authors.forename: Mikael Araújo Guimarães
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lemos
authors.forename: Marcos Vinícius Pereira
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Gondim
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Prosdocimi
authors.forename: Enrique Roberto
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Argañaraz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology; D018450:Disease Progression; D015752:Genes, env; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000166:cytology; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D055815:Young Adult; D054299:env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D021382:Protein Sorting Signals; D054299:env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus