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Current HIV Research

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ISSN (Print): 1570-162X
ISSN (Online): 1873-4251

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Research Article

Near Full-length Genomic Sequencing and Molecular Analysis of HIV-Infected Individuals in a Network-based Intervention (TRIP) in Athens, Greece: Evidence that Transmissions Occur More Frequently from those with High HIV-RNA

Author(s): Evangelia-Georgia Kostaki, Daniel Frampton, Dimitrios Paraskevis, Katerina Pantavou, Bridget Ferns, Jade Raffle, Paul Grant, Zisis Kozlakidis, Andria Hadjikou, Eirini Pavlitina, Leslie D. Williams, Angelos Hatzakis, Samuel R. Friedman, Eleni Nastouli and Georgios K. Nikolopoulos*

Volume 16, Issue 5, 2018

Page: [345 - 353] Pages: 9

DOI: 10.2174/1570162X17666190130120757

Abstract

Background: TRIP (Transmission Reduction Intervention Project) was a network-based, contact tracing approach to locate and link to care, mostly people who inject drugs (PWID) with recent HIV infection.

Objective: We investigated whether sequences from HIV-infected participants with high viral load cluster together more frequently than what is expected by chance.

Methods: Paired end reads were generated for 104 samples using Illumina MiSeq next-generation sequencing.

Results: 63 sequences belonged to previously identified local transmission networks of PWID (LTNs) of an HIV outbreak in Athens, Greece. For two HIV-RNA cut-offs (105 and 106 IU/mL), HIV transmissions were more likely between PWID with similar levels of HIV-RNA (p<0.001). 10 of the 14 sequences (71.4%) from PWID with HIV-RNA >106 IU/mL were clustered in 5 pairs. For 4 of these clusters (80%), there was in each one of them at least one sequence from a recently HIVinfected PWID.

Conclusion: We showed that transmissions are more likely among PWID with high viremia.

Keywords: HIV, recent infection, HIV transmission, PWID, HIV-RNA, TRIP.

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