Socioepidemiology of injection drug users in Miami and HIV-1B envelope (V1-V5) genetic diversity: A preliminary study

Injection drug use is a major risk behavior associated with transmission of HIV-1B. Yet, despite its importance there have not been many detailed studies characterizing the transmission of HIV-1B in well-defined injection drug use networks. This preliminary study characterized people who were closely associated and injected drugs together under private circumstances compared to those who injected drugs in a context of public risk locales with many injectors in attendance. In this study, we examined networks of HIV-1B seropositive injection drug users (IDUs). We wished to ascertain whether socioepidemiological connections and relationships (including IDU and sexual) among individuals who inject drugs would be reflected in the molecular relatedness and clustering of their HIV-1B nucleotide and protein sequences-specifically hypervariable domains (V1-V5) of the HIV-1B envelope (env) gene. We wished to learn if there was a link between subject socioepidemiology and viral sequence diversity, phylogenetic relationships, signatures, thermodynamics, and glycosylation patterns. This chapter addresses whether in risk locales where many people inject together, there are variations in probability of relatedness of HIV-1B env sequences. In addition, it is pointed out that IDU behaviors are associated with psychiatric morbidities.