Molecular Pathogens 2024, Vol.15, No.1, 9-16 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mp 10 and discuss the application of existing research methods and technologies in addressing this issue. The findings will contribute to enhancing our understanding of HIV infection, its treatment, and prevention, providing scientific evidence for future research and intervention development. 2 Important Variant Types of HIV Virus 2.1 Basic concepts of mutation and evolution HIV is an RNA virus whose genome consists of RNA molecules instead of the more common DNA (Figure 1). It is the causative agent of AIDS. The virus is transmitted through blood, sexual contact, or mother-to-child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. HIV infection mainly attacks the body's immune system, particularly CD4+ T lymphocytes, disrupting the function of the immune system. As a result, the patient's immune system becomes fragile and vulnerable to other infections and diseases. HIV is classified into multiple subtypes and serotypes based on differences between different regions and individuals. The most common ones are HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the most prevalent subtype globally, while HIV-2 is prevalent mainly in West Africa. HIV has a high degree of variability, which means it can produce different mutations in infected individuals and between populations (Robert et al., 2019). This variability can affect the effectiveness of vaccine development and antiviral treatment strategies. HIV mutation and evolution refers to the changes and accumulation of genetic information produced by the HIV genome during replication. Due to the high error rate during HIV replication, new mutant strains are generated. This high variability is one of the important reasons why HIV can evade the host immune system and antiviral drugs (Han et al., 2021). Figure 1 The biological characteristics of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (Overview of HIV, 2016) HIV mutations are mainly caused by the error replication of its reverse transcriptase. Reverse transcriptase is an enzyme that converts the virus's RNA into DNA and integrates it into the host cell's chromosomes. However, reverse transcriptase is prone to making mistakes during replication, leading to mutations in the newborn virus genome (Figure 1). These mutations can be point mutations, where a single nucleotide changes, or insertions or deletions, where nucleotides are added or deleted. These mutations lead to changes in the HIV genome and the emergence of various subtypes and strains (Inciarte et al., 2020). HIV evolution occurs when mutations accumulate and selection pressures shape new virus strains in different environments and hosts. Selection pressures can come from the host immune system and antiviral drug applications. When the host immune system produces antibodies against the virus, pressure urges the virus to change the structure of its surface proteins to evade antibody recognition. This antibody escape mechanism leads to mutations in the virus and confers immune evasion. Similarly, antiviral drug use selects for virus strains with
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