14th International AIDS Conference Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. A10026)

Resik S, Hoffman N, Ping LH, Pagan M, Perez J, Swanstrom R
Tropical Medicine Institute, Havana, Cuba

BACKGROUND: One important area of research in understanding the HIV-1 epidemic is in characterizing the natural history of the virus in the human population. Following virus evolution over time within an individual and determining the effects of transmission events on the nature of virus evolution are central components of that natural history. Observing the rate and nature of HIV-1 evolution will be a key parameter that will have to be considered in evaluating vaccine strategies against HIV-1. A unique opportunity exists to study HIV-1 in Cuba. The Cuban response to the appearance of HIV-1 in their country included extensive HIV-1 testing, contact tracing of HIV-1-infected people and the provision of centralized healthcare. Epidemiological information obtained from contact tracing can form the basis of a description of a transmission network. We have initiated a sequence analysis of the viral genomes present in two such networks. The index cases of these networks are believed to have been infected in Africa.

METHODS: Regions of the viral gag and env gene were amplified using the polymerase chain reaction, and the PCR product was subjected to direct sequence analysis.

RESULTS: In one tree we have observed a series of similar sequences belonging to subtype G HIV-1. However, in a second network there is evidence of multiple viruses suggesting that the network is more is more complex than initially thought. The viruses in the second network show phylogenetic relationships to several different HIV-1 subtypes, including subtype A, B, G and an A/H recombinant.

CONCLUSIONS: Analyses of these networks allow an accurate evaluation of the rate of HIV-1 evolution and the role of transmission events in evolution. In addition, the molecular characterization validates and improves the results obtained from contact tracing.

020707
A10026

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