Molecular epidemiology of HIV Type 1 in Ukraine: birthplace of an epidemic.

During the 1990s, HIV-1 spread rapidly through drug networks in Ukraine and from there throughout the former Soviet Union. To examine the origins of this epidemic, the genetics of HIV-1 in Ukraine were studied. Proviral DNA from PBMC was extracted and PCR amplified.

Simultaneous introduction of HIV type 1 subtype A and B viruses into injecting drug users in southern Ukraine at the beginning of the epidemic in the former Soviet Union.

The vast majority of HIV-1 strains from the epidemic in the former Soviet Union (FSU) belong to subtype A (IDU-A) and CRF03_AB (IDU-A/B), for which IDU-A is one of parental strains; no epidemic by another parental virus, belonging to subtype B (IDU-B), has yet been identified. To characterize viruses present during the early stage of the epidemic in southern Ukraine, where the first outbreaks in the FSU were registered, we obtained partial env and pol sequences from IDUs from Odessa and Nikolaev and compared them with viruses from other outbreaks. All viruses from Odessa belonged to the IDU-A type, which is in accord with previous studies.

Peculiarities of influenza infection caused by highly and poorly immunogenic strains of influenza virus.

The authors studied the peculiarities of the course of experimental influenza infection induced by the administration of highly and poorly immunogenic strains of influenza virus to mice. Influenza viruses with varying immunogenic activity were obtained from the vaccine strain A/Victoria/35/72/50 (H3N2) by immunoselection modelling the process of natural selection. The administration of strains with high and poor immunogenicity to mice of the F1 (CBA X C57B1) line led to the development of acute influenza infection accompanied by reproduction of viruses in the tissue of the lungs and other internal organs.