Abstract

GONZALEZ MUNOZ, Grehete et al. Isolation and characterization of Adenovirus strains that invade the gastrointestinal tract of Cuban HIV-positive patients. Rev Cubana Med Trop [online]. 2008, vol.60, n.3. ISSN 0375-0760.

BACKGROUND: the gastrointestinal tract is one of the most frequently affected systems in HIV-positive patients, therefore, changes or diseases occurring in this site represent an important cause of morbidity and mortality. The finding of adenovirus strains, rarely isolated in immunocompetent patients, has been occasionally associated to diarrheas, which reflects the importance of study and typing of these strains. OBJECTIVES: to find out the prevalence of Adenovirus in feces samples from HIV patients having chronic or acute diarrheas, as well as the characterization of isolated agents through the application of reliable and quick methods. METHODS: one hundred and sixty seven fecal samples from HIV-positive patients and 127 from seronegative subjects as the control group were analyzed. Isolation in cell cultures determined the prevalence and molecular biology techniques as the polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide sequencing allowed typing of isolated strains. The statistical analysis was based on the Fisher´s exact test included in Epi Info (6.04) statistical software. RESULTS: the prevalence in HIV positive patients was 15 % whereas in the HIV-negative was 4 %. The difference was statistically significant; 96 % of isolated strains in HIV positive patients belonged to subgenus D, which are linked in 62.5 % of cases to acute diarrheal condition and advanced stages of HIV infection. CONCLUSIONS: the results indicated the importance of including adenovirus and their typing in the routine diagnosis of patients positive to HIV, all of which would be useful in the clinical management of infection and would contribute key data on surveillance and control of hospital infection transmission and the epidemiological analysis.

Keywords : Adenovirus; subgenus D; immunosuppresed; HIV.