Viral Recombination of HIV Fools Immunity

How and where viral strains of HIV swap DNA may be determined by the immune response against the original infecting strain, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at the partners AIDS Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital said that when individuals infected with HIV become infected with a second strain of the virus, the two viral strains can exchange genetic information, creating a third, recombinant strain of the virus.

These multiple viral strains, called superinfection, frequently lead to a loss of immune control of viral levels.

The implication that recombination events are selected by immune responses identifies a new mechanism for the virus to escape the patient’s immune system, which would present additional challenges to vaccine design, one of the study’s lead authors, Dr. Hendrik Streeck, said in a statement.

This finding also has worldwide implications for the development of more complex strains of HIV.

The study is published online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.