Higher sequence diversity in the vaginal tract than in blood at early HIV-1 infection
Fig 5
Sequence diversity in plasma influences CD4 T cell decline.
Viral load and CD4 T cell slopes were plotted from up to 7 year longitudinal sampling of study subjects. Each slope was derived from a number of time points between viral set point to initiation of cART (S8 Fig). Spearman Rank correlation were calculated and presented for the average p-distance and viral load change for cervical (A) and plasma samples (B) and for the CD4 T cell loss compared to the HIV diversity in cervical (C) and plasma samples (D). Spearman Rank correlation were also calculated and presented for number of unique sequences versus CD4 T cell decline for cervical (p = 0.6463, r = 0.09446) (E) and plasma samples (0.0762, r = -0.2146) (F).