The Genetic Diversity and Evolution of HIV-1 Subtype B Epidemic in Puerto Rico

Pablo López, Vanessa Rivera-Amill, Nayra Rodríguez, Freddie Vargas and Yasuhiro Yamamura
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Pablo López: AIDS Research Program, Ponce Health Sciences University-School of Medicine/Ponce Research Institute, 395 Industrial Reparada 2, Ponce, PR 00716-2348, USA
Vanessa Rivera-Amill: AIDS Research Program, Ponce Health Sciences University-School of Medicine/Ponce Research Institute, 395 Industrial Reparada 2, Ponce, PR 00716-2348, USA
Nayra Rodríguez: AIDS Research Program, Ponce Health Sciences University-School of Medicine/Ponce Research Institute, 395 Industrial Reparada 2, Ponce, PR 00716-2348, USA
Freddie Vargas: AIDS Research Program, Ponce Health Sciences University-School of Medicine/Ponce Research Institute, 395 Industrial Reparada 2, Ponce, PR 00716-2348, USA
Yasuhiro Yamamura: AIDS Research Program, Ponce Health Sciences University-School of Medicine/Ponce Research Institute, 395 Industrial Reparada 2, Ponce, PR 00716-2348, USA

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: HIV-1 epidemics in Caribbean countries, including Puerto Rico, have been reported to be almost exclusively associated with the subtype B virus (HIV-1B). However, while HIV infections associated with other clades have been only sporadically reported, no organized data exist to accurately assess the prevalence of non-subtype B HIV-1 infection. We analyzed the nucleotide sequence data of the HIV pol gene associated with HIV isolates from Puerto Rican patients. The sequences ( n = 945) were obtained from our “HIV Genotyping” test file, which has been generated over a period of 14 years (2001–2014). REGA subtyping tool found the following subtypes: B (90%), B-like (3%), B/D recombinant (6%), and D/B recombinant (0.6%). Though there were fewer cases, the following subtypes were also found (in the given proportions): A1B (0.3%), BF1 (0.2%), subtype A (01-AE) (0.1%), subtype A (A2) (0.1%), subtype F (12BF) (0.1%), CRF-39 BF-like (0.1%), and others (0.1%). Some of the recombinants were identified as early as 2001. Although the HIV epidemic in Puerto Rico is primarily associated with HIV-1B virus, our analysis uncovered the presence of other subtypes. There was no indication of subtype C, which has been predominantly associated with heterosexual transmission in other parts of the world.

Keywords: HIV-1 subtype B; Puerto Rico; genetic diversity; evolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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