Residual activity of two HIV antiretroviral regimens prescribed without virological monitoring.

Virological residual activity (VRA) denotes the degree of HIV RNA suppression achieved by antiretroviral therapy in the presence of resistant virus. This concept is particularly important in resource-limited settings, where rapid switching after detection of virological failure may not be feasible. Using data from the NORA trial, we estimated VRA for two regimens-zidovudine-lamivudine-abacavir (ZDV-3TC-ABC) and zidovudine-lamivudine-nevirapine (ZDV-3TC-NVP)-and related this to the phenotypic drug sensitivity of the component drugs in the two regimens. Plasma samples at weeks 0, 48, and 96 were retrospectively assayed for HIV-1 RNA, and genotypic/phenotypic resistance testing was performed if HIV-1 RNA exceeded 1,000 copies/ml. Virological residual activity (VRA) was defined as the difference between log(10)(HIV RNA) at week 48 or 96 and week 0 and related to 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) relative to wild-type virus for ZDV and ABC (fold change [FC]). Twenty-seven samples in the ZDV-3TC-NVP group and 56 in the ZDV-3TC-ABC group contributed to the analysis. Mean VRA was significantly higher in the ZDV-3TC-ABC group than in the ZDV-3TC-NVP at week 48 (1.62 versus 0.90) and week 96 (1.29 versus 0.78). There was a weak and nonsignificant relationship between VRA and ZDV FC, with VRA decreasing by 0.1 log(10) copies/ml per 2-fold increase in ZDV. The association with ABC FC was much stronger, with a marked reduction in VRA occurring at ABC FC values greater than approximately 2. This information should be considered in future treatment guidelines relevant to resource-poor settings.

Novel drug resistance pattern associated with the mutations K70G and M184V in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase.

We describe an unusual pathway of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase resistance during therapy with tenofovir-emtricitabine, characterized initially by the mutations K70E and M184V and later by K70G and M184V, with the two mutations coexisting on the same viral genome. Phenotypic resistance to lamivudine, emtricitabine, abacavir, didanosine, and tenofovir was observed, whereas susceptibility to zidovudine and stavudine was preserved.

Phenotypic and genotypic analysis of clinical HIV-1 isolates reveals extensive protease inhibitor cross-resistance: a survey of over 6000 samples.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate in HIV-1 the extent of phenotypic and genotypic antiretroviral drug resistance and cross-resistance towards the protease inhibitors (PIs) saquinavir, ritonavir, indinavir and nelfinavir among a set of patient samples originating from European and US routine clinical practice and submitted for phenotypic drug resistance testing and/or genotypic analysis. The mutational pattern(s) underlying both resistance and cross-resistance to PIs was investigated. METHOD: Over 6000 patient isolates with plasma viral load greater than 1000 copies/ml plasma were analysed. Phenotypic resistance was evaluated by a recombinant virus assay. Phenotypic resistance is expressed as the fold-increase of the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of a compound for a patient-derived recombinant virus isolate compared with that for a wild-type laboratory virus. Genotypic analysis is reported as amino acid changes at positions in the HIV-1 protease compared to a wild-type reference. RESULTS: Phenotypic resistance to any single PI was observed in 17 to 25% of the clinical isolates investigated. Phenotypic cross-resistance among PIs (> 10-fold increase in IC50 value) was detected in 59 to 80% of the samples resistant (> 10-fold increase in IC50 value) to at least one PI. The prevalent mutations in PI-resistant isolates involved substitutions at codons 10, 36, 46, 54, 71, 77, 82 and 90. The most frequent mutational pattern in samples with PI cross-resistance involved combined substitutions at positions 10 and 90, extended with substitutions at positions 54, 71, 77, 82 or 84. CONCLUSIONS: Extensive use of first-generation PIs leads to the emergence of HIV-1 isolates possessing cross-resistance to all members of this class. Identification of particular mutational profiles among these isolates may assist in the design of new generation inhibitors with specific activity against protease-mutant HIV strains.

A novel human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase mutational pattern confers phenotypic lamivudine resistance in the absence of mutation 184V.

We describe a new human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) mutational pattern associated with phenotypic resistance to lamivudine (3TC) in the absence of the characteristic replacement of methionine by valine at position 184 (M184V) of reverse transcriptase. Combined genotypic and phenotypic analyses of clinical isolates revealed the presence of moderate levels of phenotypic resistance (between 4- and 50-fold) to 3TC in a subset of isolates that did not harbor the M184V mutation. Mutational cluster analysis and comparison with the phenotypic data revealed a significant correlation between moderate phenotypic 3TC resistance and an increased incidence of replacement of glutamic acid by aspartic acid or alanine and of valine by isoleucine at residues 44 and 118 of reverse transcriptase, respectively. This occurred predominantly in those isolates harboring zidovudine resistance-associated mutations (41L, 215Y). The requirement of the combination of mutations 41L and 215Y with mutations 44D and 44A and/or 118I for phenotypic 3TC resistance was confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis experiments. These data support the assumption that HIV-1 may have access to several different genetic pathways to escape drug pressure or that the increase in the frequency of particular mutations may affect susceptibility to drugs that have never been part of a particular regimen.

A rapid method for simultaneous detection of phenotypic resistance to inhibitors of protease and reverse transcriptase in recombinant human immunodeficiency virus type 1 isolates from patients treated with antiretroviral drugs.

Combination therapy with protease (PR) and reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors can efficiently suppress human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication, but the emergence of drug-resistant variants correlates strongly with therapeutic failure. Here we describe a new method for high-throughput analysis of clinical samples that permits the simultaneous detection of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) phenotypic resistance to both RT and PR inhibitors by means of recombinant virus assay technology. HIV-1 RNA is extracted from plasma samples, and a 2.2-kb fragment containing the entire HIV-1 PR- and RT-coding sequence is amplified by nested reverse transcription-PCR. The pool of PR-RT-coding sequences is then cotransfected into CD4+ T lymphocytes (MT4) with the pGEMT3deltaPRT plasmid from which most of the PR (codons 10 to 99) and RT (codons 1 to 482) sequences are deleted. Homologous recombination leads to the generation of chimeric viruses containing PR- and RT-coding sequences derived from HIV-1 RNA in plasma. The susceptibilities of the chimeric viruses to all currently available RT and/or PR inhibitors is determined by an MT4 cell-3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide-based cell viability assay in an automated system that allows high sample throughput. The profile of resistance to all RT and PR inhibitors is displayed graphically in a single PR-RT-Antivirogram. This assay system facilitates the rapid large-scale phenotypic resistance determinations for all RT and PR inhibitors in one standardized assay.