title: Identification and characterization of HIV type 1 subtypes present in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: high level of genetic diversity found.
abstract: Saudi Arabia has a very low prevalence of HIV infections and nothing is known about HIV strains present in the population. Here specimens were collected from 62 HIV-1-infected patients at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Viral sequences were PCR amplified using primers for HIV-1 group M in gag p24, pol integrase, and env gp41 and genetic subtype was determined by phylogenetic analysis. HIV-1 viral sequences were amplified from 56 of the 62 specimens. Based on phylogenetic analysis of viral sequences, subtype C was the most common subtype present and accounted for 39.3% of the infections followed by subtype G (25%), subtype B (17.9%), subtype D (3.6%), and subtypes A and CRF02_AG (1.8% each). In addition, for six specimens subtype classifications were discordant between gag, pol, and/or env; these intersubtype recombinant viruses account for 10.7% of the infections and consisted of recombinants of subtypes A/CRF01, A/CRF02, A/G, B/G, and D/CRF02. The high HIV-1 strain diversity suggests that there have been multiple introductions of HIV-1 into Saudi Arabia from several sources. Within the study population, there were five husband/wife pairs. For each pair, the viral sequences obtained were closely related to each other showing that heterosexual transmission occurred.
authors.affiliation: King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Samar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Badreddine
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Herman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van Zyl
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bodelle
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Priscilla
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Swanson
authors.forename: Sushil G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Devare
authors.forename: Catherine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Brennan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D015995:Prevalence; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology