HIV-1 variability and progression to AIDS: A longitudinal study

✍ Scribed by Dr. Josè Ramòn Fiore; Maria Luisa Calabró; Gioacchino Angarano; Anita De Rossi; Cecilia Fico; Giuseppe Pastore; Luigi Chieco Bianchi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 504 KB
• Volume: 32
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.1890320411

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

HIV‐1 replicative activity and its relation to the clinical and immunological evolution of infection was studied in a group of 150 HIV‐1 seropositive Italian i.v. drug abusers over a 1 year period. HIV‐1 was isolated from 91 (60%) subjects; two groups of isolates were distinguished, according to replicative activity “in vitro” and ability to induce cytopathic effects in cell cultures, and were termed “rapid‐high” and “slow‐low” viruses, in agreement with other workers. Rapid‐high viruses were recovered more frequently from patients with ARC/AIDS, while slow‐low viruses seemed related to the asymptomatic period of infection. The replicative properties of HIV‐1 seem to affect strongly the course of disease. In fact, an important CD4 cell decline occurred in asymptomatic subjects with rapid‐high virus infection; asymptomatic subjects with negative viral cultures or with slow‐low viruses showed no such decline. Asymptomatic subjects with negative viral cultures had no signs of disease during the observation period, while 9% with slow‐low virus and 45% with rapid‐high virus progressed to AIDS.