MOLECULAR AND BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A NOVEL HIV-2 ISOLATE, HIV-2(HOM)

In 1991 a new HIV-2 isolate (HIV-2HOM) was isolated first from a German individual most likely infected in West Africa in the beginning of the 1970s. The virus was isolated from both, the plasma and the peripheral blood lymphocytes of the patient by using OKT-3-stimulated cord blood lymphocytes. The recovered viruses could be further propagated on Jurkat cells and exhibited a broad cell tropism. Biochemical and antigenic properties of HIV-2HOM were examined by radioimmunoprecipitations. For a more detailed molecular characterization, a 1520 bp DNA fragment from the env gene and a 722 bp DNA fragment from the pol gene were amplified by polymerase chain reactions, cloned and sequenced. A comparison of both sequences to prototypic HIV-2 and SIV isolates revealed a close relationship to HIV-2ST. This strain originated from an asymptomatic Senegalese individual and is supposed to be of reduced pathogenicity. Taking into account genetic data, it may be assumed that HIV-2HOM and HIV-2ST are closely related strains with different growth characteristics and pathogenic features.