title: Underevaluation of HIV-1 plasma viral load by a commercially available assay in a cluster of patients infected with HIV-1 A/G circulating recombinant form (CRF02).
abstract: The authors studied the correlation and agreement of commercially available assays in detection and quantification of the HIV-1 intersubtype A/G circulating recombinant form CRF02. The assays under comparison were Bayer Versant HIV-1 RNA, version 3.0; Roche Amplicor HIV-1 Monitor, version 1.5 (standard procedure); and Organon Teknika NucliSens HIV-1 RNA QT. Plasma samples from 114 patients infected with CRF02 were tested by the three assays under standard conditions. Although correlation among the assays was high and statistically significant for subtype B and CRF02, in the latter instance, NucliSens measured average viral load values (3.29 +/- 0.71 log(10) copies/mL) about 4 and >8 times lower than those obtained by Versant (3.90 +/- 0.90 log(10) copies/mL) and Amplicor (4.22 +/- 1.05 log(10) copies/mL), respectively. Furthermore, in a statistically significant percentage of CRF02-harboring samples, NucliSens produced viral load values undetectable or 1 log(10) lower than those obtained in Versant and Amplicor assays. Altogether, these data underline a low performance of NucliSens in detecting and quantifying viremia in plasma samples harboring the CRF02. These results are potentially important as global distribution of new HIV-1 subtypes is expanding, and recombinant strains, particularly CRF02, are emerging and becoming highly prevalent.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, National Institute for Infectious Diseases, Lazzaro Spallanzani IRCCS, Via Portuense 292, 00149 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amendola
authors.forename: Licia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bordi
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Angeletti
authors.forename: Ubaldo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Visco-Comandini
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Abbate
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cappiello
authors.forename: Mohamed A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Budabbus
authors.forename: Osama A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Eljhawi
authors.forename: Mahdi I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Mehabresh
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Girardi
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Antinori
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ippolito
authors.forename: Maria R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Capobianchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005814:Genes, Viral; D005838:Genotype; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007558:Italy; D008002:Libya; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic