Abstract

During the rapid spread of HIV-1 in humans, the main (M) group of HIV-1 has evolved into ten distinct subtypes, undergone countless recombination events and diversified extensively. The impact of this extreme genetic diversity on the phenotype of HIV-1 has only recently become a research focus, but early findings indicate that the dominance of HIV-1 subtype C in the current epidemic might be related to the lower virulence of this subtype compared with other subtypes. Here, we explore whether HIV-1 has reached peak virulence or has already started the slow path to attenuation.

Author affiliations

1. Kevin K. Ariën and Guido Vanham are at the HIV and Retrovirology Research Unit, Department of Microbiology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, B2000 Antwerp, Belgium.
2. Kevin K. Ariën is currently at the Department of Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
3. Eric J. Arts is at the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, 2109, Adelbert Rd, Cleveland, Ohio, 44195 USA.

Correspondence to: Email: eja3@po.cwru.edu

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