LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF HIV-1 CLADE C FITNESS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Subtype C human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) accounts for over 56% of HIV-1 new infections globally, including the transmission of HIV-1 from infected women to their children. The envelope glycoprotein of HIV plays the primary role in determining transmissibility by defining cellular tropism through receptor interactions, and by mediating fusion of virus to target cells. Yet very little is known about the relationships between Env evolution, viral fitness, transmission, and disease progression, in the context of subtype C in children. The hypothesis is that HIV-1 fitness correlates with Env properties and evolves longitudinally with changes in the Env, and that high fitness viruses are preferentially transmitted from mothers to infants where they mediate more rapid disease progression. The overall objective is to determine the role of viral envelope in mother to child transmission and disease progression in the infected children, and how it relates to changes in the Env sequences. We have previously longitudinally characterized the evolution of the HIV-1 envelope gene from seven subtype C HIV-1 perinatally infected children with different clinical outcomes from Lusaka, Zambia. We have created proviral and Env expression constructs containing subtype C Env sequences derived from these mother-infant pairs in an HIV-1 clade B (NL4-3) backbone. We have now utilized the resulting chimeras to test Env processing, Env mediated fusion, incorporation into viral particles, viral replication kinetics, neutralization sensitivity and replication capacity/fitness and determined the particular characteristics of the envelope that are correlated with perinatal transmission or disease progression in these infected children.