Molecular Characteristics of the Envelope of Vertically Transmitted HIV-1 Strains from Infants with HIV Infection.

Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV offers a good opportunity to study the dynamics of early viral evolution in the host environment to which the virus has partially adapted. Such studies would throw light on the unique features of the infecting viruses, which will subsequently help to design preventive or therapeutic measures against the newly infecting and evolving strains of HIV. Therefore, we undertook a study to determine the genetic divergence of proviral envelope sequences from the HIV-infected infants (<2 years).