title: Slow immunological progression in HIV-1 CRF07_BC-infected injecting drug users.
abstract: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) circulating recombinant form (CRF) 07_BC has caused serious HIV-1 epidemics among injecting drug users (IDUs) in East Asia. Little is known about the characteristics of the virus and its impact on disease progression among the infected individuals. In this study, we compared immunological progression between 423 IDUs infected with CRF07_BC and 194 men who have sex with men (MSM) with primary subtype B infection, and a representative full-length CRF07_BC molecular clone, pCRF07_BC, was constructed to characterize the virus. We found that IDUs infected with CRF07_BC had significantly slower immunological progression in the Cox proportional hazards model (hazard ratio: 0.30; 95% confidence interval: 0.13-0.69; P=0.004). The constructed recombinant CRF07_BC viruses had a reduced processing of the Gag/Gag-Pol polyproteins, a decreased incorporation of Vpr in the virus particle, tethering of virus particles on the plasma membrane and decreased virus growth kinetics. These phenotypes are related to the unique 7-amino acid deletion in the p6 of CRF07_BC, since complementation of the 7-amino acid in pCRF07_BC could improve the defective phenotypes. In summary, compared with MSM infected with HIV-1 subtype B, IDUs infected with CRF07_BC had slower immunological progression, which is likely correlated with interference of virus particle maturation by the 7-amino acid deletion in p6.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Pi-Han
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University , Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chung-Chih
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Yun-Lin Branch , Yun-Lin, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jia-Ling
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hui-Lin
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ming-Siang
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Mao-Song
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital , New Taipei City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chia-Jui
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chien-Ling
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Ching
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shu-Fang
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Chun
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Departments of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chien-Ching
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan ; Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Sui-Yuan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine , Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shan-Chwen
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chang
keywords: HIV subtype; disease progression; growth kinetics; injecting drug use; men who have sex with men; primary HIV infection