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7th Annual Conference Of The British HIV Association [BHIVA]27 – 29 April 2001, The Hove Centre, Brighton |
[AUTHOR(S):] S Taylor1,5, J Workman1, P Cane1, D Ratcliff1, R Hextall2, J Clarke3, R Nandwani4, S Drake5 and D Pillay1
1 PHLS Antiviral Susceptibility Reference Unit, University of Birmingham, and Departments of Genitourinary Medicine at 2 Leeds, 3 Wakefield, 4 Glasgow and 5 Birmingham, UK
BHIVA Conf 2001 Apr 27-29;7:O9
OBJECTIVE: We undertook a detailed molecular analysis of HIV from five subjects at first diagnosis, whose potential sources of virus were identified.
METHODS: Plasma virus was extracted and amplified from these 10 subjects and compared to 25 control patients from around the UK. A 1014 bp region of the pol gene, C2V3 portion of the env gene and the p17 region of the gag gene were amplified by nested RT-PCR and the products sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using CLUSTAL W and DNADIST from the PHYLIP package.
RESULTS: Three of the five index cases had drug-resistant virus at first diagnosis. Two showed the reverse transcriptase (RT) mutations T215D and T215S. One patient seroconverted with virus containing the mutations M41L, K43E, K103N, Y188L, T215Y, D218E, in RT and L10I, L63P, V77I and V82C in protease. pol gene phylogenetic analysis revealed a genetic distance of <1% in four out of five sexual partners, supported by bootstrap values >95%. The couple with multidrug resistance mutations demonstrated a genetic distance of 2.5% in the pol but a surprisingly high degree of nucleotide sequence divergence in the env and gag genes of >13% and >7% respectively, suggesting a more complex linkage between these individuals. The possible reasons for these disparities will be discussed.
CONCLUSIONS: Molecular epidemiological techniques provide a powerful tool to explore the HIV epidemic, and demonstrates the complexity in determining transmission events between individuals.
PRESENTING AUTHOR: S Taylor
010427
O9
Copyright © 2001 - British HIV Association (BHIVA) Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the BHIVA Organising Secretariat 1 Mountview Court, 310 Friern Barnet Lane, London N20 0LD