title: A substantial transmission bottleneck among newly and recently HIV-1-infected injection drug users in St Petersburg, Russia.
abstract: There are limited data on the genetic complexity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) after transmission among a cohort of injection drug users (IDUs). We used single-genome amplification of HIV-1 env to determine the genotypic characteristics of virus among IDUs with acute infection in St Petersburg, Russia. Our results indicate that a single variant was transmitted in a majority of cases (9 of 13 participants), which is analogous to what is observed in sexual transmission. These data are most consistent with a genetic bottleneck during transmission by injection drug use that is due to a small inoculum, which most often results in the transmission of a low-complexity viral population.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Center, State Research Institute of Highly Pure Biopreparations, St Petersburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexey E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Masharsky
authors.forename: Elena N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Dukhovlinova
authors.forename: Sergei V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Verevochkin
authors.forename: Olga V
authors.initials: OV
authors.lastname: Toussova
authors.forename: Roman V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Skochilov
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Irving
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.forename: Myron S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Swanstrom
authors.forename: Andrei P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Kozlov
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D055030:Drug Users; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012426:Russia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous; D055815:Young Adult; D054299:env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D054299:env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus