2006/11/09 by Yong Zhang, Lin Lü, Lei Ba +11 · 1 citation
Immunology and Microbiology · Medicine · #HIV Research and Treatment #HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions #HIV/AIDS drug development and treatment #Molecular epidemiology #Virology #Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) #Central asia #Epidemiology #China #Dominance (genetics) #Intravenous drug #Biology #Gene #Medicine #Genetics #Genotype #Viral disease #Geography
paper · pdf · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030443
openalex publication_date 2006/11/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
BACKGROUND: Dating back to the first epidemic among injection drug users in 1989, the Yunnan province has had the highest number of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infections in China. However, the molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 in Yunnan has not been fully characterized. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using immunoassays, we identified 103,015 accumulated cases of HIV-1 infections in Yunnan between 1989 and 2004. We studied 321 patients representing Yunnan's 16 prefectures from four risk groups, 11 ethnic populations, and ten occupations. We identified three major circulating subtypes: C/CRF07BC/CRF08BC (53%), CRF01AE (40.5%), and B (6.5%) by analyzing the sequence of p17, which is part of the gag gene. For patients with known risk factors, 90.9% of injection drug users had C/CRF07BC/CRF08BC viruses, whereas 85.4% of CRF01AE infections were acquired through sexual transmission. No distinct segregation of CRF01AE viruses was found among the Dai ethnic group. Geographically, C/CRF07BC/CRF08BC was found throughout the province, while CRF01AE was largely confined to the prefectures bordering Myanmar. Furthermore, C/CRF07BC/CRF08BC viruses were found to consist of a group of viruses, including C, CRF08BC, CRF07BC, and new BC recombinants, based on the characterization of their reverse transcriptase genes. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of a province-wide HIV-1 molecular epidemiological study in Yunnan. While C/CRF07BC/CRF08BC and CRF01AE are codominant, the discovery of many sexually transmitted CRF01AE cases is new and suggests that this subtype may lead to a new epidemic in the general Chinese population. We discuss implications of our results for understanding the evolution of the HIV-1 pandemic and for vaccine development.