Paraschiv Simona 1, Batan Ionelia 1, Banica Leontina 1, Fratila Mihaela 1, Doana Angelica 1, Vizitiu I. 1, Otelea D. 1
1 Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, ‘Prof. Dr. Matei Bals’ National Institute for Infectious Diseases
Abstract
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has a high rate of evolution generated by mutations and recombinations in association with the high replication rate of this virus into the susceptible cells. The diversity of HIV can be easily observed in HIV-1 group M which comprises 9 subtypes, more that 50 inter-subtype circulating recombinant forms (CRFs) and several unique recombinant forms (URFs). Subtype distribution in Europe is geographically influenced; subtype B is highly prevalent in the Western part of the continent and subtype A is mainly responsible for the infections in the Eastern countries. From the beginning of the epidemic in Romania, a particular subtype has been reported as being highly prevalent, the F1subtype. Previous data suggested that the HIV-1 epidemiology in Romania has changed over time, other subtypes than F1 (subtype B, C and A1) being more and more encountered. 32 of 2132 sequences corresponding to HIV-1 strains isolated during 2003 and 2011 in the reference laboratory from the National Institute for Infectious Diseases ‘Matei Bals’ were unassigned for the HIV-1 subtype. We have analysed these sequences using four different recombination algorithms. Half of them were classified as being CRFs (7 were CRF14_BG and 8 were CRF02_AG) and subtype F1 (1 sequence). The other 16 sequences were recombinants with more complex patterns of recombination. Therefore, we have improved the figure of HIV-1 subtype distribution in Romania, showing how using of more different bioinformatic tools can improve the subtype assignment.