Evidence That HIV-1 CRF01_AE Is Associated with Low CD4+T Cell Count and CXCR4 Co-Receptor Usage in Recently Infected Young Men Who Have Sex with Men

• Published in: PloS one 2014-02, Vol.9 (2), p.e89462
• Main Authors: Li, Xiaoshan, Xue, Yile, Zhou, Leiming, Lin, Yi, Yu, Xiaolei, Wang, Xuqin, Zhen, Xiaohong, Zhang, Wei, Ning, Zhen, Yue, Qing, Fu, Jie, Shen, Fangwei, Gai, Jing, Xu, Yuqing, Mao, Jiawen, Gao, Xianming, Shen, Xiaopei, Kang, Laiyi, Vanham, Guido, Cheng, Hua, Wang, Ying, Zhuang, Minghua, Zhuang, Xun, Pan, Qichao, Zhong, Ping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cladistic analysis; Development and progression; Disease transmission; HIV; Infection; Medical research; Phylogeny; T cells
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089462

Men who have sex with men (MSM) have recently accounted for an alarmingly increasing proportion of HIV-1 transmission in China. In order to investigate the immune status as a result of CRF01_AE infection and CXCR4 co-receptor usage in a young Shanghai-based HIV-1-infected MSM population in Shanghai, 364 HIV-1-infected MSM with average age of 22.7 years old, newly diagnosed between Jan 2009 and Jul 2013 were analyzed for CD4+T cell count, subtyping using phylogenetic analysis, and viral co-receptor tropism using Geno2pheno and webPSSM in combination. A total of 276 individuals were identified as recently infected. Subtype assignment were as follows: 176 (63.8%) CRF01_AE, 77 (27.9%) CRF07_BC, and 23 (8.3%) subtype B. Besides, 24 second-generation recombinant strains were identified. A lower CD4+T cell count at baseline survey was observed among CRF01_AE strain-infected individuals, compared to those who were infected with CRF07_BC (P