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Updated: Jun 8, 2026
Amplifying and Quantifying HIV-1 RNA in HIV Infected Individuals with Viral Loads Below the Limit of Detection by Standard Clinical Assays
Published on: September 26, 2011
Quantification of human immunodeficiency virus-1 viral load using nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA)
J C Forbi1, S Gabadi, H O Iperepolu
1Virology Research Laboratory, Innovative Biotech-Abuja/Keffi, Nigeria. cforbi79@hotmail.com
Background:
Viral load (VL) quantification is considered an integral part of the standard care in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals but in Nigeria as in most of sub-Saharan Africa, this has not reached the majority ofpatients.
Methods:
We report the first field application of the NucliSens EasyQ HIV-1 platform for the real time quantification of HIV-1 VL combining NASBA amplification and real time detection with molecular beacons among HIV-1 infected individuals in north central Nigeria where the predominant HIV-1 subtypes are CRF02_AG and G. CD4+ counts were enumerated using a fluorescence-activated cell sorter system.
Results:
Of one hundred and forty nine (n=149) plasma sample from patients with mean age of 32 years and made up of 77 males and 72 females, fifty {n=50 (37.9%); 28 males and 22 females} had VLs below the lower detection limit (LDL=25 IU/ml) set by the assay while eighty-two {n=82 (62.1%); 39 males and 43 females} had VL levels above the LDL. Furthermore, 13 of 82 (15.9%) patients with viral loads above the LDL had VLs between 26-1000 IU/ml while 69 (84.1%) had VLs of 1001-2,400,000 IU/ml. 17 (11.4%) of the samples could not be analyzed due to poor viral amplification. Among individuals with both CD4+ and VL results (n=56), those with CD4+ of 1-418 cell/microl presented with higher VL usually above 45,000 IU/ml when compared with those with CD4+ of over 500 cell/microl.
Conclusion:
Our findings highlight the pattern, usefulness and feasibility ofVL quantification by NucliSens EasyQ in monitoring HIV-1 patients in Nigeria.
