Isolation, characterization, and sequence analysis of a novel HIV type 1 subtype A1 strain from Russia.

A new syncytia-inducing human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) strain designated PokA79 was first isolated from a peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) pool from 24 HIV-1-infected patients from Russia and adapted to growth in MT2, MT4, and U937 cell cultures. The full-length genome of this isolate was amplified by RT-two-round PCR and sequenced. The obtained sequence belongs to the A1 subtype and clustered with other A1 former Soviet Union (FSU) strains.