Abstract
Since HIV-1 Tat has been associated with neurocognitive dysfunction, we investigated 60 HIV-1 subtype B-infected individuals who were characterized for neurocognitive functioning and had paired CSF and blood plasma samples available. To avoid issues with repeated sampling, we generated population-based HIV-1 tat sequences from each compartment and evaluated these data using a battery of phylogenetic, statistical, and machine learning tools. These analyses identified position HXB2 5905 within the cysteine-rich domain of tat as a signature of CSFderived HIV-1, and a higher number of mixed bases in CSF, as measure of diversity, was associated with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder. Since identified mutations were synonymous, we evaluated the predicted secondary RNA structures, which showed that this mutation altered secondary structure. As a measure of divergence, the genetic distance between the blood and CSF-derived tat was inversely correlated with current and nadir CD4 + T cell counts. These data suggest that specific HIV-1 features of tat influence neurotropism and neurocognitive impairment.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 81-90 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of NeuroVirology |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 Apr |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health: MH22005, AI69432, AI043638, MH62512, MH083552, AI077304, AI36214, AI047745, AI74621, AI080353, U19AI090970 and the James B. Pendleton Charitable Trust. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2011-220-E00015) and a faculty research grant of Yonsei University College of Medicine for 2011 (6-2011-0115).
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Neurology
- Clinical Neurology
- Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
- Virology