Genotyping of HIV-1 Prevalent Strains in Guizhou, China

In this study, 65 clinical serum specimens were collected from suspected HIV-infected patients from Guizhou Provincial Center for Clinical Laboratory between January 2023 and April 2023. Genomic RNA was isolated using Nucleic Acid Releasing Agent (GenDx Biotech Co., Ltd.) in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
The full-length pol gene sequences of the representative genotypes of all known HIV-1 prevalent genotypes, including CRF01_AE, CRF07_BC, CRF08_BC, and subtype B, in China were downloaded from the GenBank database (genotype CRF01_AE: GenBank Accession No. U54771.1; genotype CRF07_BC: GenBank Accession No. U54771.1; genotype CRF08_BC: GenBank Accession No. AY008715.1; genotype subtype B: GenBank Accession No. GU647198.1) (He et al., 2012 (link); Zhao et al., 2018 (link)). The four genomic sequences were synthesized and cloned into the pUC57 vector by Tsingke Biotech (Beijing, China). The initial concentration of each plasmid was 1 × 10⁸ copies per milliliter, and the HIV-1 genotype CRF01_AE plasmid was used as a positive control.