Sequence Analysis of Vpr Alleles in Hiv Long-term Non-progressors

Five to ten percent of HIV-1 infected individuals remain asymptomatic up to a year after infection. This type of infection is known as a long-term non-progressive (LTNP) infection, and can be characterized as a viral phenotype with a lack of CD4+ Tcell death. This MQP deals specifically with a group of LTNPs known as the French ALT group who have a form of the virus that is considerably less cytopathic. Because mutations in the Viral Protein R (Vpr) region of the HIV-1 genome have been observed to cause similar viral phenotypes, the ALT patient Vpr alleles were investigated. Several Vpr polymorphisms were identified in hypervariable loci, most of which result in significant amino acid changes. In the future, these mutations will be mimiced in wildtype HIV’s to determine their effect on viral replication to determine if they are responsible for the LTNP phenotype.