the evolution of hiv-1 diversity in rural cameroon and its implications in vaccine design and trialshiv - 1的进化的多样性在农村喀麦隆和疫苗设计和试验的影响.pdfVIP

Viruses 2010, 2, 639-654; doi:10.3390/v2020639 OPEN ACCESS viruses ISSN 1999-4915 /journal/viruses Article The Evolution of HIV-1 Diversity in Rural Cameroon and its Implications in Vaccine Design and Trials Rebecca Powell 1, Denis Barengolts 2, Luzia Mayr 2, and Phillipe Nyambi 2,3,* 1 Department of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA; E-Mail: rebecca.powell@ 2 Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA 3 Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare Systems, New York, NY, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: phillipe.nyambi@; Tel.: +1 (212) 263-4159; Fax: +1 (212) 951-6321. Received: 30 September 2009; in revised form: 13 January 2010 / Accepted: 9 February 2010 / Published: 12 February 2010 Abstract: West-Central Africa is an epicenter of the HIV pandemic; endemic to Cameroon are HIV-1 viruses belonging to all (sub)subtypes and numerous Circulating Recombinant Forms (CRFs). The rural villages of Cameroon harbor many strains of HIV-1, though these areas are not as well monitored as the urban centers. In the present study, 82 specimens obtained in 2000 and 2001 from subjects living in the rural villages of the South and West Regions of Cameroon were subtyped in gag, pol , and env and compared to 90 specimens obtained in 2006–2008 in the same regions, in order to analyze HIV-1 evolution in these rural areas. It was found that in the South Region, the proportion of