Correlation analysis between the variation of fourth variable region of subtype B human immunodeficiency virus type 1 envelope and patient CD4+ T cell counts

Objective To characterize the correlation between the variation of V4 sequence and CD4+ T cell counts.Methods 369 V4 sequences with CD4+ T cell counts known were downloaded from the Los Alamos HIV Sequence Database.Correlations between CD4+ T cell counts and length,the number of PNGS,net charge were assessed for univariate comparisons.Furthermore,All the sequences were classified into high CD4+ T cell counts (≥200/μL) group and low CD4+ T cell counts group (＜ 200/μL).No-parametric test was used to discover the different between the two groups.Results There were significant positive correlations between the CD4+ T cell counts and length,PNGS(r =0.248,0.136,P ＜ 0.01).However,the results showed a negative association between the CD4+ T cell counts and net charge(r =-0.154,P ＜0.01).Moreover,there were less number of amino acids (P ＜ 0.01) and PNGS (P ＜ 0.05) of V4 sequences with CD4+ T cell counts ＜ 200 cells/μL.Conclusion The length and PNGS of V4 were decreased with the decline of CD4+ T cell counts,which indicated that there was a correlation between the variation of V4 and CD4+ T cell counts. Key words: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 ;  Envelope ;  V4 region ;  CD4+ T cell