glado718 / hiv-1-genetics-africans

Genetic Diversity of Strains of HIV-1 circulating in African Populations

HIV-1-Genetics-Africans

Genetic Diversity of Strains of HIV-1 circulating in African Populations

Background

• HIV is categorized into HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV type 2 (HIV-2) on the basis of differences in the viral antigens and genetic characteristics (Seitz, 2016). HIV-1 is more virulent and the major cause for the global AIDS pandemic (MA et al., 2017) while HIV-2 is less virulent and less common.
• The existence of genetic variation in HIV-1 is caused by error-prone reverse transcriptase enzyme, recombination events during replication of the virus, HIV-1 rapid turnover in the body and immune system selective pressures (Désiré et al., 2018).
• HIV-1 genetic variability is the major obstacle in the treatment of HIV and development of effective drugs. This variability occurs rapidly with some variants believed to be more virulent and resistant to different antiretroviral drugs.
• Precisely, patients monitoring, treatment, diagnostic testing, epidemiologic surveillance and drug development are influenced by HIV-1 genetic diversity.
• HIV-1 is a major health challenge in sub- Saharan countries and causes mortality and morbidity in many developing countries like Kenya as well as straining the healthcare system and the economy.

Significance of study

• This study is aimed at identifying the various HIV-1 subtypes circulating in East Africa region and to provide information on the genetic diversity of HIV in this region. These findings will also provide useful insights to which is critical for assessment of the effectiveness of treatment, intervention strategies and informing public health policy.

Aim

• The proposed research is aimed at in silico screening of HIV-1 pol protein pol(gene) sequences from NCBI virus repository from Eastern African countries and genetic characterization using computational approaches.

Objective

• To investigate the prevalence of viral variants circulating in different Eastern African countries to better characterize the HIV-1 epidemic and epidemiology.

Prerequisites

• Involves generation of sequences from NCBI virus repository from different East Africa countries of HIV-Pol region.

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Workflow

Contributors

Hesborn obura

Brenda Muthoni

clement Mlay

Lindani Moyo