IMPLICATION OF FIVE AIDS RELATED GENES IN MOTHER-TO-CHILD TRANSMISSION AND ACQUISITION OF HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS 1 IN CAMEROON

Background: Genetic variants in the mother and/or infant have been described with evidence to be associated with mother-to-child transmission of HIV, but somehow with contradictory results depending on ethnic or geographic populations. We aimed at looking at the association between the allelic frequency of some genes with vertical transmission or acquisition of HIV in Cameroon. Methodology: A total of 262 mothers (212 HIV-infected and 50 HIV non-infected) with their babies (270 in total, 42 HIV exposed-infected, 178 HIV exposed non-infected and 50 HIV non-exposed) were recruited in Yaounde- Cameroon. Their genotypes for CCR5-Delta32, CCR5 promoter59029A/G, CCR2-64I, SDF1-3’A andTRIM5α-136Q were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphisms. Results: Allelic frequencies were 14.7%, 41.9%, 9.5% and 14.7% for CCR2-64I, CCR5-59029-A/G, TRIM5α-136Q, SDF1-3’A respectively in the mothers and 18.8%, 35.9%, 11.3% and 20.5% in the babies. No delta 32 mutation in the CCR5 gene was found. The mutant genotype was most significantly frequent in the non-transmitter than in the transmitter (p= 0.005) for the SDF-1 3'A. SDF1-3’A [Odd ratio = 1.69; 95% confidence interval: 0.1158 to 0.7277); was associated to MTCT, P = 0.008.The homozygote mutants for the CCR5-59029-G were significantly higher in the infected than in the exposed uninfected babies (p=0.04). The mutations in the other genes were neither implicated in the acquisition nor in the transmission. Conclusion: SDF1-3’A was associated to the reduction of MTCT. The CCR5-59029-A/G favored acquisition of HIV by babies. Our study showed that polymorphisms in chemokine ligand may be involved in MTCT

EVALUATION OF ORAQUICK® HIV-1/2 AS ORAL RAPID TEST

As Cameroon scales up its national HIV/AIDS control program, evaluating the performance of commercially available tests for accurate and cost effective diagnostics becomes essential. A cross-sectional study assessed the performance of an HIV oral rapid test. A total of 1520 participants consented to participate in the study. After counselling, they were tested for HIV using the national algorithm followed by OraQuick. Results of the national algorithm were compared to those of OraQuick, for sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values. 62% of participants were male, and 1% was reported HIV-positive following the national algorithm. The OraQuick test had 93% sensitivity, 99% specificity, 99.93% NPV and 90% PPV (95% CI, Kappa 0.965). Though more expensive (2-6x) compared to the national algorithm tests, oral mucosal transudate-based test demonstrated good performance. Therefore, it could be implemented in resource-constrained settings if subsidized and could increase participation since less invasive with no blood accident exposure