Volta
Co-receptor usage in distinct phylogenetic clusters of HIV-1 CRF01_AE is associated with differential immune reconstitution after antiretroviral therapy
ABSTRACT HIV-1 CRF01_AE cluster 4 is the predominant strain among men who have sex with men (MSM) in China and comprises two lineages, clusters 4a and 4b. We aimed to compare immune reconstitution after antiretroviral therapy (ART) between individuals infected with clusters 4a and 4b and to explore virological determinants underlying cluster-specific differences. We conducted a multicenter cohort study in Jiangsu Province, China, enrolling 604 cluster 4-infected patients with sustained viral suppression after 24 weeks of ART. We used generalized additive mixed models to characterize CD4 + T-cell recovery, logistic regression to identify factors associated with immunological non-response (INR), and Cox regression models to evaluate determinants of the CD4 + T-cell normalization. HIV-1 co-receptor tropism was inferred using Geno2pheno. We …