Journal of Clinical Virology 17 (2000) 57–63 Evaluation of a prototype Amplicor PCR assay for detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 DNA in blood samples from Tanzanian adults infected with HIV-1 subtypes A, C and D E. Lyamuya a , E. Olausson-Hansson b , J. Albert b , F. Mhalu a , G. Biberfeld b, * a Department of Microbiology /Immunology, Muhimbili Uniersity College of Health Sciences, Uniersity of Dar es Salaam, Box 65001, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania b Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control and Microbiology and Tumorbiology Center, Karolinska Institute, S -171 82 Solna, Stockholm, Sweden Received 28 October 1999; received in revised form 25 November 1999; accepted 12 February 2000 Abstract Background: In previous evaluations, the standard Amplicor HIV-1 DNA PCR test (Roche Diagnostic Systems) has been reported to have low sensitivity for the detection of some non-B HIV-1 subtypes. It has therefore become necessary to determine the performance of commercially available as well as prototype HIV-1 PCR assays for HIV-1 DNA detection in samples from various geographical settings, in order to assess their ability to detect the different HIV-1 genotypes. Objecties: To determine the performance of the prototype Roche Amplicor version 1.5 PCR test in comparison to that of the standard Roche Amplicor PCR test for the detection of HIV-1 DNA in blood samples from HIV-1 seropositive pregnant Tanzanian women infected with various HIV-1 subtypes. Study design: This was a cross-sectional study done on 161 blood samples collected from 106 HIV-1 seropositive and 55 seronegative asymptomatic pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods: Cell pellets for PCR were prepared from EDTA blood by the Amplicor whole blood PCR sample preparation method. Plasma was used for HIV serology by enzyme linked immunosorbent assays. Subtyping was done by the heteroduplex mobility assay (HMA) using cell pellets and/or plasma. Results: The sensitivities of the prototype PCR and the standard assays were 99.1% (105/106) and 97% (99/102), respectively. All samples from 55 HIV-1 seronegative women were negative by both PCR assays. Among the 101 samples subtyped by HMA, 48 (47%) were subtype A, 30 (30%) subtype C, 20 (20%) subtype D and 3 (3%) were indeterminate. In the standard DNA PCR assay, a statistically significantly higher proportion of subtype A samples had a low level of reactivity as measured as optical density compared with the subtypes C and D samples while in the prototype assay all three subtypes showed a high level of reactivity. Conclusions: The Amplicor version 1.5 DNA PCR test has a high sensitivity for the detection of HIV-1 DNA in blood samples from Tanzanian adults. Since performance of this assay does not appear to be influenced by differences in www.elsevier.com/locate/jcv * Corresponding author. Tel.: +46-8-4572660; fax: +46-8-337460. E-mail address: gunnel.biberfeld@smi.ki.se (G. Biberfeld) 1386-6532/00/$ - see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S1386-6532(00)00073-1