Identification of Two Novel HIV-1 Unique Recombinant Forms Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Northern China

Although HIV-1 infection has now become a treatable chronic condition and not the deadly illness it once was, the costs of that treatment are substantial, and each infection prevented saves both financial and other costs. In China, the most predominant subtypes are CRF07_BC, CRF01_AE, and CRF55_01B, and the various second-generation recombinants are produced from the recombination between these subtypes. HIV full-length genome sequences can provide important information on their epidemiology. In this study, we identified two unique recombinant forms (URFs) designated as JLCC230106 and XJWQ230011, which are composed of CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC and CRF07_BC/CRF55_01B, respectively. Phylogenetic and recombinant analyses utilizing near-full-length genome (NFLG) confirmed that these URFs originated from CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC and CRF07_BC/CRF55_01B strains. The emergence of novel recombinants is increasing the genetic diversity of HIV in China. This information can be shared with clinicians, human behavior specialists, or public health policymakers and used as an aid in discovering which methods are best or most cost-effective in combating the spread of HIV.