Characterization of a New HIV-1 CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC Recombinant Virus in Guangxi, China

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Currently, more and more kinds of circulating recombinant forms (CRFs) and unique recombinant forms (URFs) were identified in China. A novel second-generation CCR5-tropic HIV-1 recombinant virus (GX2016EU09) was identified here, which was isolated from a HIV-1-infected man who had sex with men (MSM) in Guangxi, China. Phylogenetic analysis of near full-length genome (NFLG) showed that the novel HIV-1 recombinant GX2016EU09 clustered with CRF01_AE reference sequences, but set up a distinct branch. Recombinant analysis showed that the NFLG of GX2016EU09 composed of CRF01_AE (as the backbone) and CRF07_BC, with nine recombination break points observed in the gag, pol, vif, vpr, tat, rev, vpu, env, and nef regions. To our knowledge, this HIV-1 URF differs from previously documented CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC forms. The emergence of a novel CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC recombinant strain indicates the increasing complexity of the HIV-1 epidemic among the MSM group in Guangxi, China.