1970s and 'Patient 0' HIV-1 genomes illuminate early HIV/AIDS history in North America.

ABSTRACT: The emergence of HIV-1 group M subtype B in North American men who have sex with men was a key turning point in the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Phylogenetic studies have suggested cryptic subtype B circulation in the United States (US) throughout the 1970s and an even older presence in the Caribbean. However, these temporal and geographical inferences, based upon partial HIV-1 genomes that postdate the recognition of AIDS in 1981, remain contentious and the earliest movements of the virus within the US are unknown. We serologically screened >2,000 1970s serum samples and developed a highly sensitive approach for recovering viral RNA from degraded archival samples. Here, we report eight coding-complete genomes from US serum samples from 1978-1979-eight of the nine oldest HIV-1 group M genomes to dat

SUBMITTER: Worobey M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5257289 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature