AEGiS-14IAC: Polymorphism of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 in Brazil: Genetic characterization of the nef gene.

14th International AIDS Conference


Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

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Polymorphism of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 in Brazil: Genetic characterization of the nef gene.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. A10037)

Guimaraes ML, Moreira AS, Morgado MG
Lab. of AIDS &Molec. Immunol., Dept. of Immunol., Oswaldo Cruz Inst., FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

BACKGROUND: Most of the Brazilian HIV-1 samples have been characterized based on the structural genes (env, gag and pol) and no data concerning the variability of the accessory genes such as nef has been available so far. Considering the role of the nef on virus biology and the inclusion of this region in some HIV/AIDS vaccine products under testing, the purpose of this study was to document the genetic diversity of the nef gene in Brazilian HIV-1prevalent subtype samples.

METHODS: Third-four HIV-1 Brazilian samples previously subtyped by env-HMA were selected for this study: 7 of subtype B, 7 C, 8 F, 2 D, 1A and 9 corresponding to the B" Brazilian subtype B variant. A nested PCR protocol with nef primers previously described by Artenstein et al. (1996), was performed in order to amplify a 770bp fragment containing the entire nef gene for automatic sequencing (ABI model 377). After sequence edition (GCG), phylogenetic and molecular evolutionary analyses were conducted using ClustalW packages and MEGA version 2.0.

RESULTS: Discordant env and nef subtyping was verified for 5 out of 24 samples, with 3 Fenv/Bnef, 1 B"env/Cnef and 1 Cenv/Bnef. Although only few non-subtype B samples have already been analyzed so far, the CTL epitopes encoded in this region were relatively conserved among the subtypes, probably due to their overlapping with crucial regions for the maintenance of some nef biological functions. However, some specific molecular signatures could be observed among the Brazilian subtype C samples described in the present paper, as well as among those from other countries available in the HIV Molecular Immunology Database 2001.

CONCLUSION: Considering the increase of the non-B HIV-1 subtypes worldwide, specially the subtype C, more data should be generated concerning the genetic and antigenic variability of these subtypes, as well as the study of the impact of such polymorphism in HIV/AIDS vaccine design and testing.

Keywords: AEGIS, Genes, nef, HIV-1, HIV Infections, AIDS Vaccines, Polymorphism (Genetics), Variation (Genetics), HIV Seropositivity, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Brazil, Human, geneticsKWDaegis,genes,nef,hiv-1,hivinfections,aidsvaccines,polymorphism(genetics),variation(genetics),hivseropositivity,polymerasechainreaction,brazil,human,genetics

020707
A10037

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