Abstract
The Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) subtype B is the most predominant clade in Central America; but information about the evolutionary history of this virus in this geographic region is scarce. In this study, we reconstructed the spatiotemporal and population dynamics of the HIV-1 subtype B epidemic in Panama. A total of 761 HIV-1 subtype B pol sequences obtained in Panama between 2004 and 2013 were combined with subtype B pol sequences from the Americas and Europe. Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analyses revealed that HIV-1 subtype B infections in Panama derived from the dissemination of multiple founder viruses. Most Panamanian subtype B viruses (94.5%) belong to the pandemic viral strain proposed as originated in the US, whereas others (5.5%) were intermixed among non-pandemic Caribbean strains. The bulk (76.6%) of subtype B sequences from Panama grouped within 12 country-specific clades that were not detected in other Central American countries. Bayesian coalescent-based analyses suggest that most Panamanian clades probably originated between the early 1970s and the early 1980s. The root location of major Panamanian clades was traced to the most densely populated districts of Panama province. Major Panamanian clades appear to have experienced one or two periods of exponential growth of variable duration between the 1970s and the 2000s, with median growth rates from 0.2 to 0.4 year− 1. Thus, the HIV-1 subtype B epidemic in Panama is driven by the expansion of local viral strains that were introduced from the Caribbean and other American countries at an early stage of the AIDS pandemic.
Highlights
The first recognized cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in America occurred in the United States (US) in the early 1980s [1,2]
The Maximum Likelihood (ML) analysis revealed that, as expected, sequences from Caribbean countries occupied the deepest branches within subtype B phylogeny; whereas sequences from the US and France branched in a well supported BPANDEMIC group that was nested within the BCAR lineages (Fig. 1)
A great proportion of Central American sequences branched in a large monophyletic clade (BCAM, approximate likelihood-ratio test (aLRT) = 0.94) (Fig. 2), that probably corresponds to the major Central American clade recently described by Murillo et al (2013)
Summary
The first recognized cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in America occurred in the United States (US) in the early 1980s [1,2]. 150,000 subjects are currently infected with HIV-1 in Central America and HIV prevalence in the adult population (15–49 years) ranges from 0.3% in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to 1.4% in Belize [4]. The HIV-1 group M subtype B is the most prevalent viral clade in Central America [6]. The most accepted model of HIV-1 subtype B origin and dispersion in the Americas suggests that the virus was first introduced from Central Africa into Haiti around 1966 (1962–1970), the virus was disseminated from Haiti to other Caribbean islands and to the US around 1969 (1966–1972), and the virus migrated from US to other countries around the world [21]. About the origin of HIV-1 subtype B circulating in Central America
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