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Published on: March 30, 2014
Study of HIV-1 subtypes in serodiscordant couples attending an integrated counselling and testing centre in Mumbai
P R Mehta1, S Nema, S Paranjpe
1Department of Microbiology, Seth GSMC & KEM Hospital, Mumbai, India. prm.kem@gmail.com
Aims:
To determine the prevalent subtypes of HIV-1 in serodiscordant couples.
Setting:
Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC), Department of Microbiology.
Study Design:
Prospective pilot study.
Participants:
Thirty HIV-1 serodiscordant couples.
Inclusion Criteria:
a) Documentation of HIV-1 infection in one partner and seronegative status in the other, current history of continued unprotected sexual activity within the partnership, demonstration that they have been in a partnership for at least 1 year and are not currently on highly active antiretroviral therapy HAART; b) willingness of both partners to provide written informed consent including consent to continued couple counselling for 3 months.
Materials And Methods:
HIV-1 subtyping was carried out by heteroduplex mobility analysis (HMA) by amplifying env region; and DNA sequencing by amplifying gag region.
Results:
HIV-1 env gene was amplified successfully in 10/30 samples; gag gene, in 25/30 samples; and both env and gag gene were amplified successfully in 5/30 samples. HIV-1 subtype C was detected from 21 samples; subtype B, from 7; and subtype A, from 2. Sample from 1 positive partner was detected as subtype C by env HMA and subtype B by gag sequencing.
Conclusion:
HIV-1 subtype C was found to be the predominant subtype of HIV-1 in serodiscordant couples attending our ICTC, followed by HIV-1 subtype B and HIV-1 subtype A, respectively. DNA sequencing was found to be the most reliable method for determining the subtypes of HIV-1.
