Hh. Kessler et al., Determination of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 subtypes by a rapid method useful for the routine diagnostic laboratory, CL DIAG LAB, 8(5), 2001, pp. 1018-1020
The existence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) subtypes has m
any important implications for the global evolution of HIV and for the eval
uation of pathogenicity, transmissibility, and candidate HIV vaccines. The
aim of this study was to establish a rapid method for determination of HIV-
1 subtypes useful for a routine diagnostic laboratory and to investigate th
e distribution of HIV-1 subtypes in Austrian patients. Samples were tested
by a subtyping method based on a 1.3-kb sequence of the polymerase gene gen
erated by a commercially available drug resistance assay. The generated seq
uence was subtyped by means of an HIV sequence database. Results of 74 rout
ine samples revealed subtype B (71.6%) as the predominant subtype, followed
by subtype A (13.5%) and subtype C (6.8%). Subtypes E, F, G, and AE (CM240
) were also detected. This subtyping method was found to be very easy to ha
ndle, rapid, and inexpensive and has proved suitable for high-throughput ro
utine diagnostic laboratories. The specific polymerase gene sequence, howev
er, must be existent.