title: Frequent pUL27 Variations in HIV-Infected Patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Drug-resistant isolates of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) have led to the development of new anti-HCMV drugs. Maribavir (MBV) is a novel inhibitor of the HCMV viral kinase. Resistance to MBV is mapped to gene UL27, a viral nuclear protein. In this study, we investigated UL27 polymorphisms in MBV-naive HIV-positive and HCMV congenitally infected clinical samples.
  
  
  METHODS
  DNA was extracted from 20 CMV-positive HIV (9/20) and congenitally infected (11/20) patients and used for UL27 polymerase chain reaction amplification. Sanger sequencing and multiple sequence alignment of products was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  K90 was the most prevalent polymorphism in both HIV-positive and congenitally infected patients. Polymorphisms Q54, D123, and R107 (10%) were seen in more than one sample. There were significantly more polymorphisms in the HIV-positive samples (p = 0.038).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HCMV pUL27 is highly variable in adult immunocompromised HIV-positive patients.
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.
authors.forename: Azam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirarab
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mohebbi
authors.forename: Abdolvahab
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moradi
authors.forename: Naeme
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Javid
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Vakili
authors.forename: Alijan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tabarraei
keywords: Congenital cytomegalovirus infection; HIV infection; Human cytomegalovirus; Polymorphism; pUL27