Molecular epidemiology of dual HIV-1/HIV-2 seropositive adults from Senegal, West Africa.
Dual infection with HIV-1 and HIV-2 can occur in locales where these viruses co-circulate, most commonly in West Africa. Although dual seropositivity is common in this region, the true rate of dual infection remains unclear. In addition, whether unique HIV-1 subtypes are circulating in dually infected individuals is unknown. A cohort of 47 HIV-1 and HIV-2 dually seropositive individuals from Senegal, West Africa was screened for the presence of HIV-1 and HIV-2 gag and env PBMC viral DNA sequences using PCR. Of the 47 dual HIV-1/HIV-2 seropositive individuals tested, 19 (40.4%) had infection with both HIV-1 and HIV-2 confirmed by genetic sequence analysis, whereas only HIV-1 or HIV-2 was confirmed in 17 (36.2%) or 9 (19.1%), respectively. The majority of HIV-1 subtypes found were CRF-02 and A, although subtypes D, C, G, J and B were also found, reflecting the subtypes known to be circulating in Senegal. There was no significant difference in HIV-1 subtype distribution between individuals with confirmed dual infection and patients in this study with dual seropositivity but lacking HIV-2, or with HIV-1 infected patients within the general population in Senegal, although the study was underpowered to detect anything but large differences. The prevalence of HIV-1/HIV-2 dual infection appears to be significantly less than that of dually seropositive individuals and this likely reflects cross-reactive serology. The common HIV-1 subtypes prevalent in West Africa (CRF-02 and subtype A) have a similar distribution to those found in our cohort of dually infected and dually seropositive subjects.
Gottlieb
Geoffrey S
GS
Division of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. gottlieb@u.washington.edu
Sow
Papa Salif
PS
Hawes
Stephen E
SE
Ndoye
Ibra
I
Coll-Seck
Awa M
AM
Curlin
Marcel E
ME
Critchlow
Cathy W
CW
Kiviat
Nancy B
NB
Mullins
James I
JI
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D015752:Genes, env; D015750:Genes, gag; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012675:Senegal / Q000453:epidemiology; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
D004279:DNA, Viral