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- A new, more virulent HIV variant has been identified.
- People infected with the variant, named VB, have a higher viral load.
- It is, however, not a public health threat as it responds well to ARTs.
A "highly virulent" variant of HIV-1 has been discovered in the Netherlands and according to Oxford University scientists, it appears to cause more rapid disease progression than other versions of the virus.
People infected with this variant, named VB (virulent subtype B), have an average viral load that is between 3.5 and 5.5 times higher than usual for an HIV infection. (Viral load is a measure of the level of virus in the blood.)
Their CD4 counts also decrease faster than in people infected with closely related HIV strains. (CD4 cells are a type of white blood cells that fight infection.) In other words, the immune system of a person infected with this variant declines twice as fast. As a result, they are at risk of developing Aids more quickly, the researchers reported in their paper, published in Science.
People infected with the VB variant also showed an increased risk of transmitting the virus to others, a news release by the university’s Big Data Institute (BDI) explained.
Progression to Aids
According to the scientists, without antiretroviral treatment (ART), infection with VB in people in their 30s can progress to "advanced HIV" in just nine months. In an older infected person, this would happen faster.
The newfound variant also allows for disease progression to Aids to occur on average within two to three years of a person's initial HIV diagnosis, the authors said. With other versions of the virus, a similar degree of decline takes place only about six to seven years after the initial diagnosis.
Early diagnosis, treatment critical
The use of ARTs for HIV is a key intervention and has been successful over the years. The drugs prevent HIV from multiplying and suppress the virus to undetectable levels in the blood. This allows the person's immune system to recover and prevents the development of Aids.
In the current report, the scientists, who have been working alongside Dutch colleagues, noted that the new variant was not a public health threat as standard ARTs work as effectively against the VB variant as they do against other versions of HIV.
After starting treatment, individuals with the VB variant elicited a similar immune system recovery and survival to those with other HIV variants, the report stated.
However, since the new variant causes a faster decline in immunity, it is important that individuals are diagnosed early and start treatment as soon as possible.
Access to regular care
Senior author, professor Christophe Fraser at BDI, Nuffield Department of Medicine stated:
He added: “This limits the amount of time HIV can damage an individual’s immune system and jeopardise their health. It also ensures that HIV is suppressed as quickly as possible, which prevents transmission to other individuals.”
About the study
The variant was first identified in 17 HIV-positive individuals through the international BEEHIVE project, which collects and monitors samples from Europe and Uganda.
Fifteen of the individuals were from the Netherlands. The researchers, therefore, analysed data from a cohort of over 6 700 HIV positive individuals in the Netherlands and discovered an additional 92 individuals with the variant across the country, bringing the total to 109.
After studying the patterns of genetic variation among the samples, the scientists estimate that the variant first emerged during the late 1980s and 1990s in the Netherlands and spread faster than other HIV variants during the 2000s. However, its spread has been declining since around 2010, they added.
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