Open AccessIdentification and Characterization of a Novel HIV-1 Circulating Recombinant Form (CRF59_01B) Identified among Men-Who-Have-Sex-with-Men in China
Author(s) -
Weiqing Zhang,
Xiaoxu Han,
Minghui An,
Bin Zhao,
Qinghai Hu,
Zhenxing Chu,
Jiancheng Xu,
Weiping Cai,
Xi Chen,
Jihua Fu,
Zhe Wang,
Jianjun Wu,
Lin Lü,
Minghua Zhuang,
Hao Wu,
Hongjing Yan,
Christina Liao,
Yutaka Takebe,
Hong Shang
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0099693
Subject(s) - china , men who have sex with men , transmission (telecommunications) , demography , virology , biology , chinese people , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , geography , archaeology , syphilis , engineering , sociology , electrical engineering
The HIV-1 epidemic among men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) continues to expand in China. A large-scale national survey we conducted on HIV-1 strains among MSM in 11 provinces in China from 2008 to 2013 ( n = 920) identified a novel transmission cluster consisting of six strains (0.7%) that belonged to a new circulating recombinant form (designated CRF59_01B). CRF59_01B contains two subtype B segments of U.S.-European origin (in the pol and vpu-env regions) in a CRF01_AE backbone. CRF59_01B is the second CRF (after CRF55_01B) circulating primarily among MSM in China. CRF59_01B occurs at a low frequency (less than 1%), but it was detected in four different provinces/regions in China: Liaoning (northeast China) (n = 3); Hunan (central China) (n = 1); Guangdong (south China) (n = 1); Yunnan (southwest China) (n = 1). One additional recombinant strain was detected in a heterosexual individual in Liaoning province but is not the focus of this paper. Bayesian molecular clock analyses indicate that CRF59_01B emerged as a result of recombination between CRF01_AE and subtype B around the year 2001. The emergence of multiple forms of recombinants and CRFs reflects the ever-increasing contribution of homosexual transmission in China's HIV epidemic and indicates an active HIV transmission network among MSM in China.