Absence of selection of HIV-1 variants in vivo based on transcription/transactivation during progression to AIDS

The activity of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) transactivation protagonists tat and TAR has been analyzed from sequential primary material. The sequences were amplified from uncultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Despite fluctuations within the tat and TAR quasispecies there was no obvious selection for a variant encoding more powerful transactivation components either in vivo or ex vivo, indicating that this system is not exploited during disease progression. The basal levels of the natural promoters were, depending on the cell line, two- to fourfold higher than that of the reference promoter, itself derived from ex vivo adapted HIV-1 Lai.