CRF01_AE/B/C, a Novel Drug-Resistant HIV-1 Recombinant in Men Who Have Sex with Men in Beijing, China

We report a unique HIV-1 recombinant strain (URF) from an HIV-positive man who has sex with men (MSM) in Beijing, China. This virus genome has insertions and multiple drug-resistant mutations to both nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), as well as a complex intersubtype recombinant structure with 11 breakpoints. Phylogenetic analysis of the near full-length genome (NFLG) shows that this URF is comprised of gene regions originating from three circulating viral strains: CRF01_AE, subtype B, and subtype C. The parental CRF01_AE regions of the recombinant cluster with a previously described cluster 4 sublineage of CRF01_AE. The B regions of the recombinant cluster within the B (United States-European origin) subtype and the three subtype C regions cluster with a strain detected in China in 1998. The detection and characterization of this complex drug-resistant URF indicate an ongoing generation of recombinant strains among MSM, and will help to provide insight into our understanding of the dynamics and complexity of the HIV-1 epidemic in China.