Diversity of HIV-1 Subtypes and Transmitted Drug-resistance Mutations Among Minority HIV-1 Variants in a Turkish Cohort

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the surveillance of transmitted drug resistance mutations (TDRMs) to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of HIV treatment programs.

Objective: Our aim was to determine the TDRMs and evaluate the distribution of HIV-1 subtypes using and compared next-generation sequencing (NGS) and Sanger-based sequencing (SBS) in a cohort of 44 antiretroviral treatment-naïve patients.

Methods: All samples that were referred to the microbiology laboratory for HIV drug resistance analysis between December 2016 and February 2018 were included in the study. After exclusions, 44 treatment-naive adult patients with a viral load of >1000 copies/mL were analyzed. DNA sequencing for reverse transcriptase and protease regions was performed using both DeepChek ABL single round kit and Sanger-based ViroSeq HIV-1 Genotyping System. The mutations and HIV-1 subtypes were analyzed using the Stanford HIVdb version 8.6.1 Genotypic Resistance software, and TDRMs were assessed using the WHO surveillance drug-resistance mutation database. HIV-1 subtypes were confirmed by constructing a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree using Los Alamos IQ-Tree software.

Results: NGS identified nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI)-TDRMs in 9.1 % of the patients, non-nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-TDRMs in 6.8 % of the patients, and protease inhibitor (PI)-TDRMs in 18.2 % of the patients at a detection threshold of ≥ 1 %. Using SBS, 2.3 % and 6.8 % of the patients were found to have NRTI- and NNRTI-TDRMs, respectively, but no major PI mutations were detected. M41L, L74I, K65R, M184V, and M184I related to NRTI, K103N to NNRTI, and N83D, M46I, I84V, V82A, L24I, L90M, I54V to the PI sites were identified using NGS. Most mutations were found in low-abundance (frequency range: 1.0 % - 4.7 %) HIV-1 variants, except M41L and K103N. The subtypes of the isolates were found as follows; 61.4 % subtype B, 18.2 % subtype B/CRF02_AG recombinant, 13.6 % subtype A, 4.5 % CRF43_ 02G, and 2.3 % CRF02_AG. All TDRMs, except K65R, were detected in HIV-1 subtype B isolates.

Conclusion: The high diversity of protease site TDRMs in the minority HIV-1 variants and prevalence of CRFs were remarkable in this study. All minority HIV-1 variants were missed by conventional sequencing. TDRM prevalence among minority variants appears to be decreasing over time at our center.