Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 group M quasispecies evolution: diversity and divergence in patients co-infected with active tuberculosis

The evolution of intra-host human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) quasispecies prior and after treating active tuberculosis (TB) with chemotherapy in HIV-1/TB patients was assessed. Two time points HIV-1 quasispecies were evaluated by comparing HIV-1-infected patients with active tuberculosis (HIV-1/TB) and HIV-1-infected patients without tuberculosis (HIV-1/non-TB). Plasma samples were obtained from the Frankfurt HIV cohort, and HIV-1 RNA was isolated. C2V5 env was amplified by PCR and molecular cloning was performed. Eight to twenty-five clones were sequenced from each patient. Various phylogenetic analyses were performed. We found a significant increase in diversity and divergence in HIV-1/TB compared to the HIV-1/non-TB. For HIV-1/TB, the average rate of evolution of C2V5 env was higher than previous reports (2.4 × 10⁻⁴ substitution/site/day). Two groups of HIV-1/TB were observed based on the rate of HIV-1 evolution and coreceptor usage: A fast evolving R5-tropic dominating group and a relatively slowly evolving X4 group. The results demonstrated that active TB has an impact on HIV-1 viral diversity and divergence over time. The influence of active TB on longitudinal evolution of HIV-1 may be predominant for R5 viruses.