Attenuation of HIV severity by slightly deleterious mutations can explain the long-term trajectory of virulence evolution.

ABSTRACT: HIV-1 is a well-studied example of a pathogen that has evolved an intermediate level of virulence that maximises transmission. For a trait to evolve it must be heritable, and although viral load-a proxy for disease severity-has been shown to be a heritable trait, it is surprising that specific heritable viral factors remain mostly elusive. Rapid within-host evolution is also expected to diminish heritability. We hypothesised that rather than a small number of mutations of large effect determining viral load, the number of slightly deleterious mutations could be key. As a proof of principle, we explored how viral load is expected to evolve within and between hosts using a nested modelling approach that links within-host evolution with epidemiological outcomes. For mutations of sufficiently

SUBMITTER: Longley H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12677797 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature