BASIC SCIENCE

Cell Research, 15(11-12):953-961, Nov-Dec 2005

Snapshot of HIV pathogenesis in China

Nitin K SAKSENA^1,*, Bin WANG¹, Megan STEAIN¹ Rong Ge YANG², Lin Qi ZHANG^3,4,5

¹Retroviral Genetics Division, Centre for Virus Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, The University of Sydney, Westmead NSW 2145 Sydney, Australia
²AIDS and HIV Research Group, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China
³Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10021, USA
⁴Modern Virology Research Center and AIDS Center, State Key Laboratory of Virology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
⁵The AIDS Research Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical School, Beijing 100730, China

Correspondence: Nitin K SAKSENA 612-98459119 (phone) 612-88243098 (fax) E-mail:Nitin_saksena@wmi.usyd.edu.au

Table of Contents Download as printable (PDF) file -132K Full Text (html)file Search Medline for articles by: Nitin K SAKSENA

Abstract

Several reviews have focused on the nature of HIV infection and its spread in various geographical regions of China. In contrast, this review provides a comprehensive update on the prevalence of multiple HIV-1 subtypes, consequent emergence of recombinant and novel forms of HIV-1 in China, and the implications this may have on HIV diversity and the development of effective vaccines. In addition it also examines the dissemination of primary drug resistance in therapy naïve patients, as well as co-infections with two other important viruses-hepatitis B and C. The main purpose of this review is to provide a current snapshot of HIV-1 pathogenesis in China and possibly shed some light on the future of HIV evolution, and potential challenges for future vaccine and anti-retroviral therapeutics against HIV strains in this area.

Keywords: HIV, recombination, circulating recombinant forms, co-infections, AIDS.