Molecular Identification of HIV-1 in the Presence of Hepatitis B Virus and Hepatitis C Virus Co-infections

Background: Because of their similar modes of transmission, thesimultaneous infection of viral hepatitis and human immunodeficiencyvirus are increasingly seen as a big problem related to human health.Aims: To determine the drug mutations in hepatitis B virus and/or hepatitis C virus co-infected human immunodeficiency virus-1patients in Turkey.Study Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study.Methods: The present study was conducted between 2010 and 2017.HBsAg, anti-hepatitis C virus, and anti-human immunodeficiencyvirus were tested with ELISA. All anti-human immunodeficiencyvirus positive results by ELISA were verified for anti-humanimmunodeficiency virus positivity by a Western blot test, and Antihuman immunodeficiency virus positive patients with HBsAg and/oranti-hepatitis C virus positivity were included in the study. Subtypingand genotypic resistance analyses were performed by populationsequencing of the viral protease and reverse transcriptase regions ofthe human immunodeficiency virus-1 pol gene.Results: We detected 3896 human immunodeficiency virus-1 positivepatients whose sera were sent from numerous hospitals across thecountry to our polymerase chain reaction unit for detection of drugresistance mutations and whose molecular laboratory tests werecompleted. Viral hepatitis co-infections were detected in 4.3% (n=170)of patients. Hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus co-infection wereobserved in 3.2% and 0.5% of all human immunodeficiency virus-1infected patients, respectively. The major human immunodeficiencyvirus-1 subtype detected was group M, subtype B (62.9%). However,13.5% of drug resistance mutation motifs were found in humanimmunodeficiency virus-1 genomes of patients included in the study.Conclusion: Due to similar transmission routes, HIV1 patients are atrisk of hepatitis B and C virus co-infection. However, antiretroviraldrug resistance mutation model is similar to patients with hepatitisnegative.