Sequence heterogeneity of Nef transcripts in HIV-1-infected subjects at different stages of disease.

Nef transcripts were analyzed from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 10 HIV-1-infected subjects with 9-822 CD4+ lymphocytes/cu mm, including 4 individuals with a probable common source infection. There was no relationship between the phylogenetic position of the various nef sequences and the disease state of the person from whom they were derived. The nef open reading frame was disrupted in all three clones from only 1 subject. Functional analyses of a representative clone from each of the remaining 9 subjects showed that all nef alleles were capable of CD4 cell surface down-regulation, but only three nef alleles suppressed the induction of IL-2 transcription.