MOLECULAR GENOTYPING OF HIV-1 IN 61 PATIENTS WITH AIDS FROM LOME, TOGO

To study the distribution of HIV types and genotypes, in Lome, Togo, a random population of patients who met the clinical criteria of the Ba ngui definition of AIDS and were positive with two independent screeni ng assays for antibodies to HIV-1 group M, HIV-2, and HIV-1 group O wa s selected. HIV RNA from serum samples was reverse-transcribed and amp lified with degenerate primers annealing to conserved regions of the H IV-1, HIV-2, and HIV-O gag gene. Amplicons were directly sequenced usi ng an automated sequencer. A 262-271-bp (strain dependent) fragment of the gag gene from each patient was phylogenetically analyzed and comp ared to the corresponding gag sequences of published HIV-1 sequences o f known African genotypes. Genotype A was found in 48 of 60 patient am p[icons (80%), subdivided into two clusters. Ten patients (16.7%) were HIV-1 gene type G; one was genotype D and one genotype H. HIV-1 genot ype B was not found. Amplicons from two patients contained sequence am biguities, requiring cloning and sequencing of the gag insert. One pat ient (T52) was apparently infected with HIV-1 genotypes A and G; where as HIV-1 from patient T139 was of genotype A, with 2/10 clones having a three-codon insertion at nucleotide position 1142 of the gag gene. H IV-1 genotype A is dominant in Togo; genotype G is frequent and genoty pe B has not been found. J. Med. Virol. 57:25-30, 1999. (C) 1999 Wiley -Liss, Inc.