The emergence of an unassigned complex recombinant form in a Pakistani HIV-infected individual

• Published in: Archives of virology Vol. 165; no. 4; pp. 967 - 972
• Main Authors: Tariq, Uroosa, Iftikhar, Ayesha, Zahid, Dilsha, Sultan, Faisal, Mahmood, Syed Faisal, Naeem, Sadaf, Ali, Syed, Abidi, Syed Hani
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01-04-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Anti-HIV Agents - therapeutic use; Antiretroviral agents; Antiretroviral drugs; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brief Report; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Viral; Epidemics; Genetic analysis; Genotype; HIV; HIV Infections - drug therapy; HIV Infections - epidemiology; HIV Infections - virology; HIV-1 - classification; HIV-1 - drug effects; HIV-1 - genetics; HIV-1 - isolation & purification; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infectious Diseases; Male; Medical Microbiology; Multidrug resistance; Pakistan - epidemiology; Phylogeny; Recombination, Genetic; Virology; Pakistan
• ISSN: 0304-8608; 1432-8798
• DOI: 10.1007/s00705-020-04551-4

In Pakistan, the HIV situation has gone from an outbreak to a concentrated epidemic, and the virus has now crossed into the low-risk population. In addition, several new HIV outbreaks have occurred in different parts of the country. HIV-1 subtype A has been the major epidemic subtype in Pakistan; however, as the epidemic has grown, the emergence of several new subtypes and recombinant forms has been observed. Here, we present the first case and genetic analysis of an unassigned, complex recombinant form in a Pakistani HIV-infected individual with virological failure. Genetic analysis of the sequence indicated that this recombinant form is multi-drug resistant, harboring drug resistance mutations against more than one class of antiretroviral drugs.