HIV-1 superinfection is not a common event

Abstract

Evidence for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) superinfection was investigated among a group of four previously HIV-1 infected transfusion recipients (and the four implicated HIV-1 infected donors) identified by the Transfusion Safety Study, and two groups of 4 and 5 Brazilian injection drug users, who consistently injected themselves using shared paraphernalia. To probe these cases for possible superinfection we used heteroduplex mobility analysis (HMA) of HIV-1 tot, a technique which is a reliable for establishing epidemiologic linkages and searching for minor strains in mixed infection settings. in all these cases with established, untreated HIV-1 infections, we were unable to detect HIV-1 superinfection, even though the involved individuals were at high risk for second strain acquisition. We therefore conclude that although superinfection can occur in a few cases, it is a rare event, and the vast majority of recombinant HIV-1s characterized to date resulted from acute coinfections, rather than superinfection. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Universidade Federal de São Paulo, BR-04039032 São Paulo, BrazilUniv So Calif, Los Angeles, CA USABlood Ctr Pacific, Blood Syst Res Inst, San Francisco, CA USABlood Syst Inc, Scottsdale, AZ USAUniv Calif San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143 USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, EPM, BR-04039032 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc