Confirmation of Two Novel HIV-1 CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC Recombinant Forms Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Hebei, China.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a serious infectious disease because of its' high genetic variability. Nowadays, homosexual contact has become the most predominant transmission route in Hebei province, China, leading to the emergence of novel HIV-1 recombinant forms. The neighbor-joining (N-J) phylogenetic trees were constructed using MEGA 6.0 in order to identify the subtypes of H22063 and H22144. Recombination breakpoints were identified using online resources jpHMM, RIP 3.0, and Simplot 3.5.1. In this study, we identified two novel HIV-1 unique recombinant forms (URFs) _0107 from three men who have sex with men in Hebei province, including H22063 and H22144. The near full-length genome analysis showed H22063 has seven gene recombination sub-regions, including three subtype CRF07_BC gene fragments inserted into the CRF01_AE backbone. H22144 has nine gene recombination sub-regions, including four subtype CRF07_BC gene fragments inserted into the CRF01_AE backbone. This study confirms the emergence of novel recombinant forms and suggests we should strengthen the monitoring of novel HIV recombinant forms in order to deal with the complex HIV-1 epidemiological trend in Hebei province, China.