title: Non-B HIV type 1 subtypes among men who have sex with men in Rome, Italy.
abstract: An increase in the circulation of HIV-1 non-B subtypes has been observed in recent years in Western European countries. Due to the lack of data on the circulation of HIV-1 non-B subtypes among European HIV-1-infected men who have sex with men (MSM), a biomolecular study was conducted in Rome, Italy. HIV-1 partial pol gene sequences from 111 MSM individuals (76 drug naive and 35 drug experienced) were collected during the years 2004-2006. All these sequences were analyzed using the REGA HIV-1 Subtyping Tool, and aligned using CLUSTAL X followed by manual editing using the Bioedit software. A BLAST search for non-B subtype sequences was also performed. Twenty-six (23.4%) MSM were not Italians. Eight individuals (7.2%) were diagnosed as HIV infected before 1991, 20 (18.0%) between 1991 and 1999, and 83 (74.8%) from 2000 to 2006. Fifteen (15/111, 13.5%) individuals were infected with the non-B subtype. The percentage of infection with HIV-1 non-B subtypes was 8.2% (7/85) among Italian MSM and 30.8% (8/26) among the non-Italians (OR = 4.95 95% IC: 1.40-17.87). Individuals infected with the non-B subtype were significantly younger than those infected with the HIV-1 B subtype (28 years vs. 34 years, p = 0.003). The CRFs were more prevalent (8.1%) than pure subtypes (5.4%), which were distributed as follows: subtype C (2.6%), subtype A1 (1.7%), and subtype F1 (0.9%). Major mutations conferring resistance to antiretroviral drugs (ARV) were not found among HIV-1 non-B subtype drug-naive patients but were found in two ARV-experienced individuals. The data show that viral diversity is likely increasing in a population group that had been previously characterized by the circulation of HIV-1 subtype B.
authors.affiliation: Reparto Epidemiologia, Dipartimento Malattie Infettive, Parassitarie e Immunomediate, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy. giuliani@iss.it
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giuliani
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Montieri
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Palamara
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Latini
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alteri
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Perno
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Santoro
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rezza
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ciccozzi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005838:Genotype; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015995:Prevalence; D012384:Rome / Q000453:epidemiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D055815:Young Adult; D054302:pol Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D054302:pol Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus