Impact on replicative fitness of the G48E substitution in the protease of HIV-1: an in vitro and in silico evaluation.

We observed an unusual glycine-to-glutamate substitution at protease (PR) residue position 48 (G48E) in an African patient infected with a subtype A1 HIV-1 strain failing a saquinavir-containing regimen. Phenotypic analysis of protease inhibitor (PI) susceptibility showed that the G48E site-directed mutant, when introduced into an NL4-3 HIV-1 PR backbone, was slightly resistant to SQV (2-fold when compared with the wild-type virus). In addition, the G48E and G48E/V82A site-directed mutants were associated with a decrease in fitness, whereas a reversion to the wild type at position 48 was observed in vitro.

Prevalence of HIV co-receptor polymorphisms in HIV-infected patients and uninfected volunteers in Luxembourg.

Purpose: To describe the prevalence of nine HIV-1 co-receptor polymorphisms in Luxembourg (CCR5-Delta 32, CCR5-58755-A/G, CCR5m303, CCR5-59029-A/G, CCR2-64I, CCR5-59653-C/T, CX(3) CR1-V249I, CX(3) CR1-T280M, and SDF1-3'A) in 288 HIV-1-infected patients and in 158 uninfected, healthy volunteers.

Method: The presence of mutations was detected using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)-based methods.

Results: We did not find any significant differences in genotype distributions and allele frequencies between infected and uninfected participants in Luxembourg.