Phylogenetic analysis of env, gag, and tat genes of HIV type 1 detected among the injecting drug users in West Bengal, India.
A recent occurrence of HIV-1 seropositivity among a group of injecting drug users (IDUs) in Darjeeling, a hilly district in northern West Bengal, revealed overall 11.8% HIV seroprevalence. Our study based on env (C2-V3), gag (p24-p7), and tat (exon-1) genomic regions of HIV-1 detected among this population showed that Darjeeling IDU sequences belonged to subtype C. Interestingly, the IDU sequences from Darjeeling were again found to be closer to the C strains from Manipur, a northeastern state in India, which is linked to the Golden Triangle via the Manipur-Myanmar border, rather than the IDU C sequences from Nepal, a neighboring country of India. The outgroup reference strains from different sites of IDU-driven epidemics in the world like Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Spain belonged to the nonsubtype C group and formed separate clusters from the subtype C cluster in our analysis. These results indicate a rapid spread of HIV-1 by possible drug trafficking along international boundaries, which might also help in the invasion of HIV-1 among IDUs of Darjeeling through the Manipur-Myanmar border of India.
Mullick
Ranajoy
R
HIV Research Laboratory, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Calcutta, India.
Sengupta
Satarupa
S
Sarkar
Kamalesh
K
Saha
M K
MK
Chakrabarti
Sekhar
S
D015752:Genes, env / Q000235:genetics*; D015750:Genes, gag / Q000235:genetics*; D015756:Genes, tat / Q000235:genetics*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000635:transmission; D015528:HIV Seroprevalence; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000821:virology