A study of the HIV-1 regulatory genes using the polymerase chain reaction

Abstract

In this work, a total of 200 samples from the HIV-infected individuals were analyzed: 50 samples from the Saha Republic (Yakutia), 50 samples from the Vologda Region (City of Cherepovets), and 100 samples from the Moscow Region (Moscow and Moscow Region). All samples were obtained from the patients who were not undergoing antiretroviral therapy. It was detected that the regulatory genes vif, vpr, vpu, rev, tat, and nef were amplified with moderate sensitivity after one-stage amplification. When those samples were analyzed by the nested PCR the detection ratio was much higher. While studying nef-gene the phenomena of the splicing in cells cores was detected at the advanced stages of the HIV-infection (3 and 4 stages). At the same time, the splicing was not detected at the earlier stages of the HIV-infection. This effect might be the cause of the transition from asymptomatic stage of the infection to the advanced stage. It was also shown for the first time that the variability of the regulatory genes correlated with the virus subtype.

Keywords

• hiv
• regulatory genes
• pcr
• nested pcr
• stages of hiv-infection