Identification and characterization of HIV type 1 subtypes present in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: high level of genetic diversity found

AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2007 May;23(5):667-74. doi: 10.1089/aid.2007.0185.

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.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Genetic Variation*
  • HIV Infections / epidemiology*
  • HIV Infections / virology*
  • HIV-1 / classification*
  • HIV-1 / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Phylogeny
  • Prevalence
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Saudi Arabia / epidemiology

Associated data

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