The evolutionary dynamics of untreated HIV and the maintenance of the latent reservoir
Richard Neher
Biozentrum, University of Basel
slides at neherlab.org/201712_IISc.html
Evolution of HIV
Chimp → human transmission around 1900 gave rise to HIV-1 group M
~100 million infected people since
subtypes differ at 10-20% of their genome
HIV-1 evolves ~0.1% per year
image: Sharp and Hahn, CSH Persp. Med.
HIV infection
10 8 cells are infected every day
the virus repeatedly escapes immune recognition
integrates into T-cells as latent provirus
image: wikipedia
HIV-1 evolution within one individual
silouhette: clipartfest.com, Zanini at al, 2015. Collaboration with Jan Albert and his group
Population sequencing to track all mutations above 1%
diverge at 0.1-1% per year
almost full genomes coverage in 10 patients
full data set at hiv.tuebingen.mpg.de
Zanini et al, eLife, 2015
Mutation rates and diversity and neutral sites
Zanini et al, Virus Evolution, 2017
Inferred vs measured mutations rates (Abram et al)
Zanini et al, Virus Evolution, 2017
Diversity and rates of change
envelope changes fastest, enzymes slowest
identical rate of synonymous evolution
diversity saturates where evolution is fast
synonymous mutations stay at low frequency
Zanini et al, eLife, 2015
Frequent reversion of previously beneficial mutations
HIV escapes immune systems
most mutations are costly
humans selects for different mutations
compensation or reversion?
Inference of fitness costs
mutation away from preferred state with rate μ
selection against non-preferred state with strength s
variant frequency dynamics: d x d t = μ − s x
equilibrium frequency: ˉ x = μ / s
fitness cost: s = μ / ˉ x
Fitness landscape of HIV-1
Zanini et al, Virus Evolution, 2017
Selection on RNA structures and regulatory sites
Zanini et al, Virus Evolution, 2017
The distribution of fitness costs
Zanini et al, Virus Evolution, 2017
T-cell turnover is fast in untreated infection
latent HIV → barcode of a T-cell lineage
all latent integrated virus derives from late infection
untreated: T-cell lineages are short lived
on therapy: T-cell clones live decades
Brodin et al, eLife, 2016
Acknowledgments
Fabio Zanini
Jan Albert
Johanna Brodin
Christa Lanz
Göran Bratt
Lina Thebo
Vadim Puller
The evolutionary dynamics of untreated HIV and the maintenance of the latent reservoir
Richard Neher
Biozentrum, University of Basel
slides at neherlab.org/201712_IISc.html