Impact of HIV subtype on the benifit of new treatments/ therapies/ vaccines

[Magnus]

I'm very excited by all the current promising studies and developments in the pipeline at the moment however:

I contracted my HIV in Thailand- which means it is most likely HIV-1 subtype E (CRF01_AE common in SE Asia and Japan) although this is part of the M group (as is subtype B), I'm worried that all the new developments will be targeted at subtype B which is far and away the most common type of HIV in the US and western Europe ( where all the promising developments are!)

Does anyone know if the subtype you are infected with will determine if new treatments/ vaccine / potential cures will work for you?

[John2038]

Hi Magnus,

to not worry about your subtype.
I have read a lot about it, as mine is not the well known B, common in countries like in the EU or the US.

It is true that most of the drugs have been tested against the B subtype, but in all cases, the drugs are efficient against all subtypes.
Now if some subtype seems to be more aggressive than others, it primarily greatly depends on your body itself (genes) more than the subtype.

Accordingly to what I have read, your subtype did not remind me that it is a bad subtype. It is comparable to the B and C.
In some case, having an another subtype can be a good news. Your labs will tell you.

HTH

Cheers,
John

[Magnus]

Hi John

Thanks for that- its reassuring the drugs will work at least!

Some studies in Thailand have shown that subtype E leads to AIDS and death faster if untreated, however i think it does respond well to HAART thank god

Just hope if a cure is developed that it will work for all us non subtype B folk!

[Magnus]

Oh John, do you mind if i ask what subtype you have?