Abstract EN:

Neutralizing antibodies exert a selection pressure that drives HIV-1 evolution, playing a major role in its diversification. We were interested in the relationship between the genetic diversity of the virus and its neutralization by antibodies at both the individual and the populational levels. At the individual level, viral populations with distinct genetic properties have been observed in the central nervous system in about half of the subjects infected with HIV-1. We studied this phenomenon, termed compartmentalization. Our results suggest that the selection pressure by neutralizing antibodies is not responsible for the evolution pathway of neurotropic variants in the CSF. We also observed specific features for these neurotropic variants. In the second part of this work, we evaluated the sensitivity to broadly neutralizing antibodies of recently transmitted CRF02_AG viruses isolated in France. We observed an increased resistance to some monoclonal antibodies, which was positively correlated with the diversification of the viruses during the study period. This is in line with the hypothesis of the repercussion of the selection pressure within individuals towards a greater resistance of HIV-1 at the populational level.