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In vitro replication capacity of HIV-2 variants from long-term aviremic individuals.

Blaak H, van der Ende ME, Boers PH, Schuitemaker H, Osterhaus AD

Department of Virology, Erasmus Medical Center (Erasmus MC), Dr. Molewaterplein 50, 3015 GE Rotterdam, The Netherlands. h.blaak@erasmusmc.nl

To establish whether efficient suppression of virus replication in HIV-2-infected individuals is associated with low replicative capacity of HIV-2, replication kinetics of HIV-2 variants from long-term aviremic individuals was analyzed and compared with that of the relatively slow-replicating HIV-1 variants from asymptomatics and long-term nonprogressors (AS/LTNP). On average, HIV-2 from aviremic individuals had lower replication rates than HIV-1 variants from AS/LTNP in cells of 8 donors (0.45 log10 [range 0.14-0.77] vs. 0.58 log10 [range 0.32-0.99] pg RT/ml/day, P = 0.036). The relatively low replication rate of HIV-2 compared to HIV-1 variants was not related to different sensitivities to inhibition by CD8+ T cells or different degrees of infectivity. HIV-2 replication rates increased with progressive infection and with switch from CCR5 to CXCR4 usage. The relatively low replicative capacity of HIV-2 variants from aviremic individuals likely contributes to the low viral load and benign course of infection in these individuals.

Published 1 September 2006 in Virology, 353(1): 144-54.
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