Chronic HIV-1 Infection Frequently Fails to Protect against Superinfection
Date
2007-11Author
Piantadosi, Anne
Chohan, Bhavna
Chohan, Vrasha
McClelland, R Scott
Overbaugh, Julie
Language
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Reports of HIV-1 superinfection (re-infection) have demonstrated that the immune response generated against one strain of HIV-1 does not always protect against other strains. However, studies to determine the incidence of HIV-1 superinfection have yielded conflicting results. Furthermore, few studies have attempted to identify superinfection cases occurring more than a year after initial infection, a time when HIV-1-specific immune responses would be most likely to have developed. We screened a cohort of high-risk Kenyan women for HIV-1 superinfection by comparing partial gag and envelope sequences over a 5-y period beginning at primary infection. Among 36 individuals, we detected seven cases of superinfection, including cases in which both viruses belonged to the same HIV-1 subtype, subtype A. In five of these cases, the superinfecting strain was detected in only one of the two genome regions examined, suggesting that recombination frequently occurs following HIV-1 superinfection. In addition, we found that superinfection occurred throughout the course of the first infection: during acute infection in two cases, between 1–2 y after infection in three cases, and as late as 5 y after infection in two cases. Our results indicate that superinfection commonly occurs after the immune response against the initial infection has had time to develop and mature. Implications from HIV-1 superinfection cases, in which natural re-exposure leads to re-infection, will need to be considered in developing strategies for eliciting protective immunity to HIV-1.
URI
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.0030177#abstract1http://hdl.handle.net/11295/73778
Citation
Piantadosi A, Chohan B, Chohan V, McClelland RS, Overbaugh J (2007) Chronic HIV-1 Infection Frequently Fails to Protect against Superinfection. PLoS Pathog 3(11): e177. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.0030177Publisher
University of Nairobi
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10385]