Impact of HIV-1 genetic diversity in China on the measurement of viral load

In this study, 190 HIV-positive samples were collected from different regions of China. The HIV clades of 153 samples were determined successfully based on env sequencing. Specifically, 48, 5, 87, and 13 isolates belonged to clades B', B, BC, and AE, respectively. The viral loads in all samples were measured using three commercial assays, Amplicor HIV-1 monitor v1.5, Nuclisens HIV-1 QT and NucliSens EasyQ HIV-1 assays. The differences and linear correlations for individual assays were compared, with expected 1:1 relationships. Significant differences were found for the following viral loads: clade BC measured by any two assays (P < 0.001); clade AE between Amplicor 1.5 and Easy Q (P=0.005); clade B' between Amplicor 1.5 and Nuclisens QT (P= 0.002); clade AE between Amplicor 1.5 and Nuclisens QT (P=0.025); and clade B' between Amplicor 1.5 and EasyQ (P=0.04). The largest mean difference in the log(10) values was 0.9518, which was found between Amplicor 1.5 and Nuclisens QT. However, the viral loads for clades AE and B' measured by EasyQ and Nuclisens QT, and those for clade B measured by any two assays did not differ significantly. The degrees of correlation for clades B and B' between any two assays (13 > 0.8) were higher that those for clades AE and BC between any two assays (R < 0.7), except for clade AE between Amplicor 1.5 and Easy Q. Thus, the clade types, especially clades BC and AE, are most likely to impact on the quantitation of viral load using different-assays.