AEGiS-11IAC: Profiles of CD4 cell status, HIV subtype prevalence and other viral coinfections in a study population of Bombay, India.

11th International AIDS Conference

Vancouver, British Columbia — July 7-12, 1996

Profiles of CD4 cell status, HIV subtype prevalence and other viral coinfections in a study population of Bombay, India.

Int Conf AIDS 1996 Jul 7-12; 11:456 (abstract no. Pub.C.1112)
Joshi PJ, Bhave GG, Maniar JK, Mukhopadhyaya R; Virology Laboratory, Cancer Research Institute, Parel, Bombay, India. Fax: 91-22-4146089. E-mail: cri3@soochak.ncst.ernet.in.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the CD4 (and CD8) cell percentage in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and PCR based evaluation of HIV-1 and HIV-2 prevalence along with co-infection with HHV-6, HTLV-1 and II in the HIV-positive population.

METHODS: PBMC were derived from a total of 126 HIV ELISA positive cases either in healthy asymptomatic stage or in different stages of the disease and the CD4/CD8 subset analysis was carried out using an indirect immunofluorescent assay. A total of 124 PBMC derived DNA were tested by PCR amplification of HIV gag region, HIV-1 env region (V3 loop and flanks) and HIV-2 env region (gp 36). Also using PCR we studied the presence of HHV-6, HTLV-I and II. All amplified products were tested for specificity by end labeled oligo probe hybridisation.

RESULTS: The CD4/CD8 subset analysis showed that advancing clinical stages correlated with progressive depletion of CD4 cells. All 124 samples were positive for HIV gag amplification (115 bp), 97 were positive for only HIV-I (422 bp), 2 for only HIV-2 (785 bp), and 20 were double positive. HHV-6 amplification (223 bp) was detected in 30 samples and HTLV-I (570 bp) in 3 cases HTLV-II was not detected in any case.

CONCLUSIONS: CD4 depletion profile in the Indian HIV-infected population reflects the universal pattern. The dominant infection is with HIV-1 (78.2%) with a relatively small size population (1.6%) with only HIV-2 but a significant population (16%) showing presence of both HIV-1 and 2. Apparently only HTLV-I and not HTLV-II has entered in but a small number of the HIV-infected population of Bombay though the high HHV-6 infection level warrants further study.

Keywords: AEGIS, Antigens, CD4, HIV-1, Prevalence, HIV Infections, Antigens, CD8, Herpesvirus 6, Human, HIV-2, Human T-lymphotropic virus 1, Human T-lymphotropic virus 2, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Anti-HIV Agents, India, virology, epidemiology, ICA11

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