Study of Gag gene antigen epitypes variation and the quasispecies group characteristics in Henan area HIV-1 strains / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the characteristics of the variation of antigen epitopes and quasispecies group in the HIV-1 viruses in Henan province in China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The region of the p17-p24 of the HIV-1 gag gene was amplified by nested polymerse chain reaction (PCR), purified products were cloned into the vector, the obtained were analyzed by MEGA soft wares.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>B' subtype strains were predominant in Henan province, the mutations in antigen epitypes of the p17 region of the gag gene focus on E62g (55.8%), Y79f (48.9%), T84V (48.9), I44V (44.2%), the p24 region had not found the distinct mutation.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Both the PCR sequences and clone strains sequences demonstrated that four antigen epitopes mutations in p17 region of the HIV B' subtype gag gene, and the region of p24 was more conservative, which was suitable for development of the epitope vaccien.</p>