title: Molecular epidemiology of HIV in a cohort of men having sex with men from Istanbul.
abstract: In Turkey, the first HIV/AIDS case was reported in 1985. Since then the number of persons with HIV infection has increased, HIV is getting a public health problem. The aim of this study was to determine HIV-1 subtype diversity, drug resistance and gag cleavage site mutations among 20 HIV-infected men having sex with men from Istanbul, Turkey. The most prevalent subtype was found to be subtype B (50 %), but also the non-B subtypes A1, C and CRF02_AG, CRF03_AB and CRF06_cpx were found. Resistance-associated mutations were found in 6 patients (30 %) with 2/6 patients being therapy-experienced and 4/6 therapy-naïve at the time-point of analysis. In these patients, the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI)-associated resistance mutations M41L, T215C, V75I, T69N, the non-NRTI associated mutations V106I, E138A, K103N and the protease inhibitor associated mutations Q58E and V82I were detected. Two virus strains also presented Gag cleavage site mutations. With increasing numbers of HIV-infected Turkish patients that require anti-retroviral treatment, HIV-1 drug-resistance testing is strongly recommended in order to choose the most active drug combination for therapy to achieve better clinical outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Dilek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alpsar
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agacfidan
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lübke
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Verheyen
authors.forename: Haluk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eraksoy
authors.forename: Atahan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cağatay
authors.forename: Emel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bozkaya
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Baki
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Akgül
mesh_terms: D024882:Drug Resistance, Viral; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase / Q000235:genetics; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D009154:Mutation; D014421:Turkey; D054301:gag Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D054301:gag Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; C514824:reverse transcriptase, Human immunodeficiency virus 1; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase