Damond, F.
Benard, A.
Balotta, Claudia
Böni, Jürg
Cotten, Matthew
Duque, Vitor
Ferns, Bridget
Garson, Jeremy
Gomes, Perpetua
Gonçalves, Fátima
Gottlieb, Geoffrey
Kupfer, Bernd
Ruelle, Jean
[UCL]
Rodes, Berta
Soriano, Vicente
Wainberg, Mark
Taieb, Audrey
Matheron, Sophie
Chene, Genevieve
Brun-Vezinet, Francoise
et al. [show all ]
Accurate HIV-2 plasma viral load quantification is crucial for adequate HIV-2 patient management and for the proper conduct of clinical trials and international cohort collaborations. This study compared the homogeneity of HIV-2 RNA quantification when using HIV-2 assays from ACHI E V 2E study sites and either in-house PCR calibration standards or common viral load standards supplied to all collaborators. Each of the 12 participating laboratories quantified blinded HIV-2 samples, using its own HIV-2 viral load assay and standard as well as centrally validated and distributed common HIV-2 group A and B standards (http://www.hiv .lanl.gov/content/sequence/ HelpDocs/subtypes-more.html). Aliquots of HIV-2 group A and B strains, each at 2 theoretical concentrations (2.7 and 3.7 log 10 copies/ml), were tested. Intralaboratory, interlaboratory, and overall variances of quantification results obtained with both standards were compared using F tests. For HIV-2 group A quantifications, overall and interlaboratory and/or intralaboratory variances were significantly lower when using the common standard than when using in-house standards at the concentration levels of 2.7 log 10 copies/ml and 3.7 log 10 copies/ml, respectively. For HIV-2 group B, a high heterogeneity was observed and the variances did not differ according to the type of standard used. In this international collaboration, the use of a common standard improved the homogeneity of HIV-2 group A RNA quantification only. The diversity of HIV-2 group B, particularly in PCR primer-binding regions, may explain the heterogeneity in quantification of this strain. Development of a validated HIV-2 viral load assay that accurately quantifies distinct circulating strains is needed. Copyright © 2011, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Bibliographic reference
Damond, F. ; Benard, A. ; Balotta, Claudia ; Böni, Jürg ; Cotten, Matthew ; et. al. An international collaboration to standardize HIV-2 viral load assays: Results from the 2009 ACHI EV 2E quality control study. In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology , Vol. 49, no. 10, p. 3491-3497 (2011)
Permanent URL
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/163504