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We established a strong association between HIV-2 phenotypic tropism and V3-loop sequences, allowing for the prediction of R5- and/or X4-tropic viruses in HIV-2 infection.

We studied seven heavily pretreated HIV-2-infected patients exhibiting a virological failure while receiving a salvage raltegravir-containing regimen. At the time of virological failure, different resistance genetic pathways were observed: T97A-Y143C, Q148K, Q148R, G140S-Q148R, E92Q-Y143R-N155H, and T97A-N155H. Thus, despite a 40% difference in integrase genes between HIV-1 and HIV-2, the genetic pathways leading to raltegravir resistance are similar.

The aim of this study was to assess the analytical performances, sensitivity and specificity, of two rapid tests (Covid- Presto® test rapid Covid-19 IgG/IgM and NG-Test® IgM-IgG COVID-19) and one automated immunoassay (Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG) for detecting anti- SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. This study was performed with: (i) a positive panel constituted of 88 SARS-CoV-2 specimens collected from patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR, and (ii) a negative panel of 120 serum samples, all collected before November 2019, including 64 samples with a cross-reactivity panel. Sensitivity of Covid-Presto® test for IgM and IgG was 78.4% and 92.0%, respectively. Sensitivity of NG-Test® for IgM and IgG was 96.6% and 94.9%, respectively. Sensitivity of Abbott IgG assay was 96.5% showing an excellent agreement with the two rapid tests (κ = 0.947 and κ = 0.936 for NGTest ® and Covid-Presto® test, respectively). An excellent agreement was also observed between the two rapid tests (κ = 0.937). Specificity for IgM was 100% and 86.5% for Covid-Presto® test and NG-Test®, respectively. Specificity for IgG was 92.0%, 94.9% and 96.5% for Covid-Presto®, NGTest ®, and Abbott, respectively. Most of the false positive results observed with NG-Test® resulted from samples containing malarial antibodies. In conclusion, performances of these 2 rapid tests are very good and comparable to those obtained with automated immunoassay, except for IgM specificity with the NG-Test®. Thus, isolated IgM should be cautiously interpreted due to the possible false-positive reactions with this test. Finally, before their large use, the rapid tests must be reliably evaluated with adequate and large panel including early seroconversion and possible cross-reactive samples.

Zika virus in the female genital tractA first description of a womanto-man sexual transmission of the Zika virus was reported in July, 2016, 1 concomitantly with the first description of Zika virus RNA detection in the female genital tract. 2 We report additional evidence for this potential route of transmission with this second case of Zika virus RNA detection in the female genital tract.After 11 days in the West Indies in Guadeloupe, an epidemic area since April, 2016, the patient came back to Paris, France in mid-July, 2016. At her arrival, the patient had fever, headache, and retro-orbital pain. At day 2, a morbiliform itching rash with dysesthesia appeared on their trunk, arms, and thighs. At the Louis Mourier Teaching Hospital (Colombes, France) on day 4, the blood cell count, transaminases, and C-reactive protein concentrations were normal. Serological testing was negative for Zika virus (Euroimmun,

ANRS 127 was a randomized pilot trial involving naïve patients receiving two dual-boosted protease inhibitor (PI) combinations. Virological response, defined as a plasma HIV RNA level of <50 copies/ml at week 16, occurred in only 41% patients. Low baseline plasma HIV RNA level was the only significant predictor of virological response. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact on virological response of pretherapy mutations in cleavage sites of gag, gag-pol, and the gag-pol frameshift region. The whole gag gene and protease-coding region were amplified and sequenced at baseline and at week 16 for 48 patients still on the allocated regimen at week 16. No major PI resistance-associated mutations were detected either at baseline or in the 26 patients who did not achieve virological response at week 16. Baseline cleavage site substitutions in the product of the gag open reading frame at positions 128 (p17/p24) (P ‫؍‬ 0.04) and 449 (p1/p6 gag ) (P ‫؍‬ 0.01) were significantly more frequent in those patients not achieving virological response. Conversely, baseline cleavage site mutation at position 437 (TFP/p6 pol ) was associated with virological response (P ‫؍‬ 0.04). In multivariate analysis adjusted for baseline viral load, these 3 substitutions remained independently associated with virological response. We demonstrated here, in vivo, an impact of baseline polymorphic gag mutations on virological response in naïve patients receiving a combination of two protease inhibitors. However, it was not possible to link the substitutions selected under PI selective pressure with virological failure.

In this study of nine clinical isolates obtained from integrase inhibitor-naïve HIV-2-infected patients, the median EC₅₀ value for the new integrase inhibitor S/GSK1349572 was 0.8 nM (range 0.2-1.4), and is similar to HIV-1 reference strains. We found a seven-, 13- and 18-fold increase in EC₅₀ values to S/GSK1349572 for the HIV-2 double (T97A + Y143C; G140S + Q148R) and triple (G140T + Q148R + N155H) mutants, respectively, obtained from two raltegravir-experienced patients.

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