Characterization of subtypes and transmitted drug resistance strains of HIV among Beijing residents between 2001-2016

Abstract

Background Beijing is a national and international hub potentially containing a broad diversity of HIV variants. Previous studies on molecular epidemiology of HIV in Beijing pooled together samples from residents and non-residents. Pooling residents and non-residents has potentially introduced bias and undermined a good assessment and the intervention among the autochthonous population. Here, we aimed to define HIV subtype diversity and investigate the TDR in Beijing residents exclusively. Methods We analyzed the demographic, clinical, and virological data collected between 2001 and 2016 from residents in Beijing. A population-based sequencing of the HIV pol gene was carried out using plasma specimens. Phylogenetic analysis was performed in order to classify sequences into their corresponding subtypes using an automated subtyping tool, the Context-Based Modeling for Expeditious Typing (COMET). Furthermore, the drug resistance mutations were determined using the World Health Organization list for surveillance of TDR mutations. Results Data on TDR were available for 92% of 2,315 individuals with HIV infection, of whom 7.1% were women. The bioinformatic analysis of HIV strains from this study revealed that a combined 17 subtypes were circulating in Beijing, China between 2001 and 2016. The most common ones were CRF01_AE, CRF07_BC, and subtype B in Beijing during this period. The overall prevalence of TDR was 4.5% (95% confidence intervals[CI]: 3.6%-5.4%), with a declining trend over the period of spanning 2001 through 2016. In-depth

Transmitted drug resistance and transmission clusters among HIV-1 treatment-naïve patients in Guangdong, China: a cross-sectional study

“…The overall prevalence of TDR is 2.20% in Guangdong. In general, this prevalence has remained low according to WHO categorisation methods [ 34 ], and is lower than that in other regions of China [ 12 – 16 ]. A significant difference between the prevalence of TDR and CD4 + T cell count and genotype was observed, consistent with previous results [ 13 ].…”

“…In 2015, a nationwide cross-sectional survey revealed that the overall prevalence of TDR was 3.6% in China [ 11 ]. More recently, the TDR rate of many cities in China has increased 4.5% in Beijing [ 12 ], 7.21% in Guangxi [ 13 ], 11.1% in Zhejiang [ 14 ], and 7.8% in Tianjin [ 15 ].…”

CRF07_BC is associated with slow HIV disease progression in Chinese patients

“…However, they did not realize that the higher CD4 counts could be regarded as a proxy of slower disease progression, nor did they generalize from their finding the conclusion that CRF07_BC progresses slower than CRF01_AE. We have previously shown that CRF07_BC has a lower TDR prevalence than subtype B and CRF01_AE (1.5% vs. 4.8% vs. 5.6%) respectively 27 , 28 . Ge et al 29 and Cao et al 30 have demonstrated that CRF07_BC is associated with better immune recovery in Chinese patients undergoing antiretroviral treatment (ART) compared to that of patients infected with CRF01_AE.…”

“…The first group comprised all patients with the HIV TDR genotype, performed between 2001 and 2020 at the BHLN. BHLN is a national collaboration engaged in surveillance of HIV TDR in China 27 , 28 . These methods have been previously described.…”

“…These methods have been previously described. Briefly, approximately 40% of the samples from all individuals newly diagnosed with HIV infection by BHLN between 2001 and 2020 were randomly selected 27 , 28 . The BHLN takes part in maintaining the national HIV epidemiology database, which tracks everyone who receives a diagnosis of HIV infection in China and records the baseline CD4 count of all individuals with newly diagnosed HIV infection.…”