Clinical and virological evolution of two dual infections in Argentina.

C.E. ESPADA, G. ANDREANI, J. AMBROSIONI, D. PUGLIESE, J. BENETUCCI, L. MARTINEZ PERALTA.

Cape Town, Sudáfrica

Congreso; Aids Vaccine 2008.; 2008

International AIDS Asociation

Background: Genetic characterization of HIV-1 in Argentina showed that BF recombinant form predominates among heterosexuals and injecting drug users (IDUs), while in men who have sex with men (MSM) the most prevalent is subtype B. Previous studies of our group showed a high prevalence of dual infections in individuals with double transmission risk. The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical and virological evolution of the dual infections in two previously identified patients. Methods: Consents and blood samples were collected from 2 HIV positive patients with double infection from Buenos Aires. A partial poI HIV gene fragment was cloned after PCR from patients´ DNA. Sequences were obtained and phylogenetic analyses were performed by the Neighbor-joining method. Bootscaning analysis was performed to confirm recombinant forms. Results: Previous studies of this cohort showed three double infections among eight HIV-1 positive individuals. In two cases, a dual infection with CRF_12BF recombinant and B subtype were found. In Patient 1 (bisexual) subtype B was the prevalent. In a recent sample of this patient, 20/20 sequences dustered with subtype B. In addition, in Patient 2 (bisexual & IDU) the prevalent form was the CRF_12BF recombinant. After one year of its characterization, 20/20 poI sequences of this patient clustered with CRF_12BF recombinant form. No clinical or virological changes were seen during the follow-up period. Conclusion: Previous reports of our group and others established that superinfection is possible and that there is a high rate of superinfection in Argentina. In this study, after one year of the detection of the dual infection, the minority subtype present in the first sample, couldn´t be detected and the patients had a stable evolution. The implications of the superinfection in the context of vaccine development and evolution of the patients are still not clear.