{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,7]],"date-time":"2026-11-07T03:16:37Z","timestamp":1794021397254,"version":"4.8.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,17]],"date-time":"2025-03-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1742169600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>Liangshan Prefecture is one of the areas in China most severely affected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but little is known about the molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 in this area. We aimed to analyze the distribution of HIV-1 genetic variants in Liangshan Prefecture in recent years.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>8,523 blood samples were collected from people living with HIV with treatment failure and newly diagnosed individuals in all 17 counties and cities in Liangshan Prefecture between 2021 and 2023.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>The majority of study participants were male (66%), farmers (78%) and illiterate (53%). The main HIV-1 transmission routes were heterosexual contact (57%) and injecting drug use (27%). Among the 6,298 successfully obtained <jats:italic>pol<\/jats:italic> sequences the following HIV-1 variants were identified: CRF07_BC (93.9%), CRF08_BC (3.3%), CRF01_AE (1.4%), URFs (0.9%), CRF105_0108 (0.1%), CRF55_01B (0.1%), subtype B (0.1%), subtype C (0.1%), CRF88_BC (0.1%), CRF83_cpx (0.1%), CRF85_BC (0.03%), CRF67_01B (0.02%), CRF77_cpx (0.02%), and subtype A (0.02%). During the study period, the proportion of CRF07_BC gradually decreased, while other HIV-1 variants increased, a shift seen across all counties in Liangshan Prefecture. Newly diagnosed patients mainly acquired HIV through heterosexual transmission (86.7%), had a lower proportion of CRF07_BC (90.9%) and higher proportion of other HIV-1 variants, compared to treatment failure patients.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Future prevention and control policies need to take these changes into account.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2025.1520864","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,17]],"date-time":"2025-03-17T07:19:33Z","timestamp":1742195973000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["The changing molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 in Liangshan prefecture, China, in 2021\u20132023"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Rong","family":"Pei","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ling","family":"Su","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chunnong","family":"Jike","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gang","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ju","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Xiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yubing","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maogang","family":"Shen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chang","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiayi","family":"Liao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yulian","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yifei","family":"Zheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joris","family":"Hemelaar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"17810","DOI":"10.1177\/23259582231217810","article-title":"HCV genotype distribution and clinical characteristics of HCV mono-infected and HCV\/HIV co-infected patients in Liangshan prefecture, Sichuan Province, China","volume":"22","author":"Cao","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. 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