Abstract
BackgroundThe rate of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection in Iran has increased dramatically in the past few years. While the earliest cases were among hemophiliacs, injection drug users (IDUs) fuel the current epidemic. Previous molecular epidemiological analysis found that subtype A was most common among IDUs but more recent studies suggest CRF_35AD may be more prevalent now. To gain a better understanding of the molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 infection in Iran, we analyzed all Iranian HIV sequence data from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.MethodsAll Iranian HIV sequences from subtyping studies with pol, gag, env and full-length HIV-1 genome sequences registered in the HIV databases (www.hiv.lanl.gov) between 2006 and 2013 were downloaded. Phylogenetic trees of each region were constructed using Neighbor-Joining (NJ) and Maximum Parsimony methods.ResultsA total of 475 HIV sequences were analyzed. Overall, 78% of sequences were CRF_35AD. By gene region, CRF_35AD comprised 83% of HIV-1 pol, 62% of env, 78% of gag, and 90% of full-length genome sequences analyzed. There were 240 sequences re-categorized as CRF_AD. The proportion of CRF_35AD sequences categorized by the present study is nearly double the proportion of what had been reported.ConclusionsPhylogenetic analysis indicates HIV-1 subtype CRF_35AD is the predominant circulating strain in Iran. This result differed from previous studies that reported subtype A as most prevalent in HIV- infected patients but confirmed other studies which reported CRF_35AD as predominant among IDUs. The observed epidemiological connection between HIV strains circulating in Iran and Afghanistan may be due to drug trafficking and/or immigration between the two countries. This finding suggests the possible origins and transmission dynamics of HIV/AIDS within Iran and provides useful information for designing control and intervention strategies.
Highlights
Important characteristics that contribute to the worldwide spread of HIV are its enormous genetic variability and rapid evolution, which makes the virus highly adaptable to selection pressures of new hosts
A secondary analysis was performed using all Iranian HIV sequences from subtyping studies with pol, gag, env and full-length human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) genome sequences registered in the HIV databases at the Los Alamos National Laboratory between 2006 and 2013
A total of 475 Iranian HIV-1 sequences were analyzed in this study, of which 174 sequences were for pol genes, 161 sequences for env genes, 130 sequences for gag genes, and 10 sequences for full-length genomes
Summary
Important characteristics that contribute to the worldwide spread of HIV are its enormous genetic variability and rapid evolution, which makes the virus highly adaptable to selection pressures of new hosts. [1] The presence of viral RNA as a dimer and co-infection of a cell with more than one viral genotype results in recombination and mixed genotypes. Together, this presents a complex picture of genetic variation of HIV-1 virus. According to the CDC, a total of 26,556 PLWH had been identified in Iran through June 2013.[7,8,9] The HIV transmission routes in all the cases registered since 1986, in order of magnitude, are sharing injection equipment among IDUs (68.4%), sexual intercourse (12.3%), blood transfusion (0.9%), and mother-to-child transmission (1.2%); the route of transmission for the remaining 17.2% is unknown. To gain a better understanding of the molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 infection in Iran, we analyzed all Iranian HIV sequence data from the Los Alamos National Laboratory
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