Detection of picobirnavirus in HIV-infected patients with diarrhea in Argentina

Diarrhea due to enteric pathogens is an important complication of advanced HIV infection. Picobirnaviruses are agents recently linked with human enteritis. In total, 197 fecal samples collected from HIV-infected and noninfected patients with and without diarrhea were investigated for the presence of rotavirus and picobirnavirus by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Picobirnavirus was detected in 8.8% of 57 HIV-infected patients with diarrhea, but it was detected in neither those without diarrhea (p<.018) nor in the group of subjects uninfected with HIV (p<.022). All genomic electropherotypes of picobirnavirus strains had a wide pattern. Picobirnavirus genome segments varied in size between 2.4 and 2.7 and 1.6 and 1.9 kbp for the slow and fast migrating bands, respectively. Rotaviruses were not detected in any of the clinical groups studied. Two methods for the extraction of nucleic acid-phenol/chloroform and guanidinium thiocynate (GTC)/silica-were compared. Detection of picobirnavirus by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was 2.5 times more sensitive following guanidinium thiocynate RNA extraction. This investigation offers preliminary results about the circulation of picobirnavirus in HIV-infected patients in Córdoba, Argentina.