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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 2007, p. 88-92, Vol. 45, No. 1
0095-1137/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.01613-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Quantitative Detection of Plasma Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 Subtype A RNA by the Nuclisens EasyQ Assay (Version 1.1){triangledown}

Berta Rodés,1* Julie Sheldon,1 Carlos Toro,1 Laureano Cuevas,2 Esperanza Pérez-Pastrana,2 Inmaculada Herrera,2 and Vincent Soriano1

Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital Carlos III, Madrid,1 Service of Electron Microscopy, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Majadahonda, Spain2

Received 4 August 2006/ Returned for modification 13 September 2006/ Accepted 25 October 2006

No commercial viral load assay has yet been approved for use for measurement of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) RNA levels in plasma. We assessed the performance of the NucliSens EasyQ (version 1.1) assay (EasyQ; bioMérieux, Boxtel, The Netherlands) to quantify HIV-2 viremia. A viral stock was prepared from an HIV-2 (subtype A)-infected patient. Culture supernatant was subjected to viral particle counting by electron microscopy. Serial dilutions of the viral stock were made in HIV-negative plasma and were used to test EasyQ for its sensitivity, linearity, and reproducibility. RNA was quantified by the NucliSens EasyQ (version 1.1) assay. Plasma samples from 75 HIV-2-infected patients were further tested. EasyQ was able to quantify HIV-2 RNA in a reproducible manner. Overall, estimates of the number of HIV-2 RNA copies/ml obtained with EasyQ were lower than those obtained by electron microscopy; however, the differences were always less than 0.7 log (mean, 0.55 ± 0.19 log10). The assay showed good linearity (r2 = 0.964; P < 0.0001). The agreement between both measures was assessed by use of a Bland-Altman plot; the narrow limits (0.158 to 0.952), defined as the mean difference ± 2 standard deviations, indicated good agreement. The reproducibility was also good, since the between-run coefficients of variation were 1.49, 3.60, and 12.25% for samples containing 6.30, 4.30, and 2.30 log10 HIV-2 RNA copies/ml, respectively. HIV-2 RNA was detected in 34 of 75 (45%) plasma specimens (mean, 2.72 log RNA copies/ml; range, 1.74 to 4.11 log RNA copies/ml); the rest of the specimens were considered to have undetectable viremia. A negative correlation was found between the number of HIV-2 RNA copies/ml and CD4 counts. In summary, EasyQ was shown to be reliable for the measurement of plasma HIV-2 subtype A RNA levels and may be a feasible tool for routine clinical monitoring of HIV-2 subtype A-infected patients.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital Carlos III, Sinesio Delgado, 10, Madrid 28029, Spain. Phone: 34 91 453 25 86. Fax: 34 91 733 66 14. E-mail: brodes.hciii{at}salud.madrid.org.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 8 November 2006.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 2007, p. 88-92, Vol. 45, No. 1
0095-1137/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.01613-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Damond, F., Benard, A., Ruelle, J., Alabi, A., Kupfer, B., Gomes, P., Rodes, B., Albert, J., Boni, J., Garson, J., Ferns, B., Matheron, S., Chene, G., Brun-Vezinet, F., for the ACHIEV2E (a Collaboration on HIV-2 Infecti, (2008). Quality Control Assessment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 (HIV-2) Viral Load Quantification Assays: Results from an International Collaboration on HIV-2 Infection in 2006. J. Clin. Microbiol. 46: 2088-2091 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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