TY - JOUR
T1 - HIV-1 subtype diversity and phylogenetic insight into non-B subtype transmission in Slovenia, 1989-2013
AU - Mlakar, Jana
AU - Lunar, Maja M.
AU - Abecasis, Ana B.
AU - Vandamme, Anne Mieke
AU - Tomažič, Janez
AU - Vovko, Tomaž D.
AU - Pečavar, Blaž
AU - Turel, Gabriele
AU - Poljak, Mario
N1 - Funding Information:
The research leading to these results received funding from the Slovenian Research Agency [grant number P3-0083] and Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Slovene Medical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Introduction: Disease progression, drug resistance mutations, and treatment strategies may vary by HIV-1 subtype. This study determined HIV-1 subtypes circulating in Slovenia, a Central European country with an HIV-1 epidemic driven by men who have sex with men, focusing on molecular epidemiology of non-B subtypes. Methods: A total of 367 HIV-1 sequences were included. Subtype was assigned by employing eight different HIV subtyping tools coupled with maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses. Results: The subtyping tools COMET, jpHMM, and REGA 3.0 exhibited the best performance on the dataset studied. Phylogenetic analyses showed a 14.7% prevalence of non-B subtypes, with subtype A detected most frequently (4.9%), followed by CRF02_AG (2.4%), subtype C (1.1%), subtypes D, G, and CRF01_AE (0.8% each), and subtypes F and CRF22_01A1 (0.3% each). A subtype could not be assigned to 12 sequences (3.3%), indicating potential unique recombinant forms. Non-B subtypes were significantly associated with a heterosexual route of transmission and infection acquired in Eastern Europe, Africa, or Asia. Conclusions: In a country where subtype B is predominant, non-B subtypes were observed in one out of seven patients, a non-negligible proportion, which underlines the importance of systematic surveillance of HIV subtype diversity and the corresponding molecular epidemiology.
AB - Introduction: Disease progression, drug resistance mutations, and treatment strategies may vary by HIV-1 subtype. This study determined HIV-1 subtypes circulating in Slovenia, a Central European country with an HIV-1 epidemic driven by men who have sex with men, focusing on molecular epidemiology of non-B subtypes. Methods: A total of 367 HIV-1 sequences were included. Subtype was assigned by employing eight different HIV subtyping tools coupled with maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses. Results: The subtyping tools COMET, jpHMM, and REGA 3.0 exhibited the best performance on the dataset studied. Phylogenetic analyses showed a 14.7% prevalence of non-B subtypes, with subtype A detected most frequently (4.9%), followed by CRF02_AG (2.4%), subtype C (1.1%), subtypes D, G, and CRF01_AE (0.8% each), and subtypes F and CRF22_01A1 (0.3% each). A subtype could not be assigned to 12 sequences (3.3%), indicating potential unique recombinant forms. Non-B subtypes were significantly associated with a heterosexual route of transmission and infection acquired in Eastern Europe, Africa, or Asia. Conclusions: In a country where subtype B is predominant, non-B subtypes were observed in one out of seven patients, a non-negligible proportion, which underlines the importance of systematic surveillance of HIV subtype diversity and the corresponding molecular epidemiology.
KW - Central Europe
KW - HIV-1
KW - molecular epidemiology
KW - non-B subtype
KW - phylogeny
KW - subtyping
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85172229806&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.15570/actaapa.2023.20
DO - 10.15570/actaapa.2023.20
M3 - Article
C2 - 37749970
AN - SCOPUS:85172229806
SN - 1318-4458
VL - 32
SP - 99
EP - 110
JO - Acta Dermatovenerologica Alpina, Pannonica et Adriatica
JF - Acta Dermatovenerologica Alpina, Pannonica et Adriatica
IS - 3
ER -
