Prevalence of HIV-1 Subtypes and Drug Resistance-Associated Mutations in HIV-1-Positive Treatment-Naive Pregnant Women in Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo (Kento-Mwana Project).

PubMed

Bruzzone, Bianca; Saladini, Francesco; Sticchi, Laura; Mayinda Mboungou, Franc A; Barresi, Renata; Caligiuri, Patrizia; Calzi, Anna; Zazzi, Maurizio; Icardi, Giancarlo; Viscoli, Claudio; Bisio, Francesca

2015-08-01

The Kento-Mwana project was carried out in Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo, to prevent mother-to-child HIV-1 transmission. To determine the prevalence of different subtypes and transmitted drug resistance-associated mutations, 95 plasma samples were collected at baseline from HIV-1-positive naive pregnant women enrolled in the project during the years 2005-2008. Full protease and partial reverse transcriptase sequencing was performed and 68/95 (71.6%) samples were successfully sequenced. Major mutations to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and protease inhibitors were detected in 4/68 (5.9%), 3/68 (4.4%), and 2/68 (2.9%) samples, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of HIV-1 isolates showed a high prevalence of unique recombinant forms (24/68, 35%), followed by CRF45_cpx (7/68, 10.3%) and subsubtype A3 and subtype G (6/68 each, 8.8%). Although the prevalence of transmitted drug resistance mutations appears to be currently limited, baseline HIV-1 genotyping is highly advisable in conjunction with antiretroviral therapy scale-up in resource-limited settings to optimize treatment and prevent perinatal transmission.

Discordances with HIV-1 RNA quantitative determinations by three commercial assays in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo.

PubMed

Bruzzone, Bianca; Bisio, Francesca; Caligiuri, Patrizia; Mboungou, Franc A Mayinda; Nigro, Nicola; Sticchi, Laura; Ventura, Agostina; Saladini, Francesco; Zazzi, Maurizio; Icardi, Giancarlo; Viscoli, Claudio

2014-07-01

Accurate HIV-1 RNA quantitation is required to support the scale up of antiretroviral therapy in African countries. Extreme HIV-1 genetic variability in Africa may affect the ability of commercially available assays to detect and quantify HIV-1 RNA accurately. The aim of this study was to compare three real-time PCR assays for quantitation of plasma HIV-1 RNA levels in patients from the Republic of Congo, an area with highly diversified HIV-1 subtypes and recombinants. The Abbott RealTime HIV-1, BioMérieux HIV-1 EasyQ test 1.2 and Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HIV-1 1.0 were compared for quantitation of HIV-1 RNA in 37 HIV-1 seropositive pregnant women enrolled in the Kento-Mwana project for prevention of mother-to-child transmission in Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo. The sample panel included a variety of HIV-1 subtypes with as many as 21 (56.8%) putative unique recombinant forms. Qualitative detection of HIV-1 RNA was concordant by all three assays in 33/37 (89.2%) samples. Of the remaining 4 (10.8%) samples, all were positive by Roche, three by Abbott and none by BioMérieux. Differences exceeding 1Log in positive samples were found in 4/31 (12.9%), 10/31 (32.3%) and 5/31 (16.1%) cases between Abbott and BioMérieux, Roche and BioMérieux, and Abbott and Roche, respectively. In this sample panel representative of highly polymorphic HIV-1 in Congo, the agreement among the three assays was moderate in terms of HIV-1 RNA detectability and rather inconsistent in terms of quantitation. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Daigaku Nyugakusha Senbatsu Hoho ni kansuru Kenkyu' (Research on Examination for Entrance into Universities).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bulletin, 1969

1969-01-01

This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1,500 words) of a series of research papers on the selection of college and university students. One paper compared the scores gained by three different types of entrants to six universities attracting applicants of high quality. It was found that a candidate has almost no chance of…