HIV-1 reverse transcriptase subtyping revealed CRF35-AD as a current subtype in the northeast of Iran

TL;DR

This study identifies CRF35-AD as the most common HIV-1 subtype in northeast Iran and finds treatment discontinuation and duration correlate with increased drug resistance mutations.

Contribution

The study reports CRF35-AD as a current prevalent HIV-1 subtype in northeast Iran and links treatment patterns to mutation increases.

Findings

CRF35-AD was the most prevalent HIV-1 subtype (88.6%) in the studied population.

Treatment discontinuation and duration were significantly correlated with increased mutations (r=0.621 and r=0.452, respectively).

Abstract

Previously, the sequence of the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase gene was analyzed to identify mutations associated with drug resistance. We statistically analyzed the relationship between a set of additional data and increasing mutations. Existing sequences were also phylogenetically analyzed. Of all patients tested for phylogenetic tree analysis, one individual had the F subtype, two had the CRF01-AE strain, and two had the A subtype. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that HIV-1 CRF35-AD was the most prevalent subtype (88.6%) among the cases studied. The number of treatment discontinuations (r=0.621, df=20, p=0.002) and the duration of treatment (r=0.452, df=20, p=0.035) were significantly correlated with an increase in mutations.

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