Detecção do vírus HIV em plasma sanguíneo de gestantes por espectroscopia ATR-FTIR e análise multivariada

Abstract

The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are the cause of a nfection that can compromise the immune system. The main concern with pregnant women with the virus is the vertical transmission that can occur during pregnancy, during labor and even during the breastfeeding period. The risk of vertical transmission can be reduced through early diagnosis. The colorimetric assays used for the virus detection have high costs and are quite laborious, making it necessary to develop fast and low-cost methodologies for the HIV detection. Herein, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) combined with multivariate analysis was used to distinguish HIV-infected patients (n = 40) from healthy controls (n = 80) in a total of 120 blood plasma samples. PCA-LDA, PCAQDA, PCA-SVM, GA-LDA, GA-QDA, GA-SVM, SPA-LDA, SPA-QDA and SPASVM were used as classification tools. The models had their performances evaluated according to precision, sensitivity, specificity, F-score and G-score. PCA-SVM, SPA-LDA and GA-LDA models were the ones that obtained the most satisfactory results for the discrimination of the samples with accuracy of 81%, 75% and 88.9% respectively. GA-LDA was the best classification model, presenting the best values of sensitivity (83%), specificity (92%), F-score and Gscore (87%). The results suggest the potential of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis as an alternative tool for HIV screening in pregnant women based on blood plasma, being a low-cost, fast and reagent-free method.