[Genetic analysis of the mutations in HIV-1 infected population in Ecuador]. / Análisis genético de las mutaciones presentes en las poblaciones virales en pacientes con infección por VIH-1 en Ecuador.

Background The international recommendations of antiretroviral treatment include resistance tests to guide the treatment regimen in each patient, which is not available on a regular basis in Ecuador. Aim To describe mutations that confer resistance to antiretrovirals in a population of Ecuadorian patients. Methods Plasma samples from 101 HIV-1 patients with failure to antiretroviral therapy, divided into 15 children and 86 adults, were studied with the GS Junior (Roche) and the sequences were analyzed with the DeepChek program. Results The most frequent mutations were M184V/I, K101E/P/H, K103N/S, D30N, M46L/I, I54L/M, V82T/F/A/S/L and L90M in adults and F77L, K103N/S, M46L/I, V82T/F/A/S/L and L90M in children. High resistance to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors in minority viral populations of adults and children (34.9% and 70%) was detected; in children both viral populations (majority and minority viral populations) (> 45%) were protease inhibitor resistant. Patients who had a greater number of therapeutic regimens had higher levels of resistance to antiretrovirals. Most of the samples were subtype B in the TR and protease region, and CRF25_cpx in integrase. Conclusions Mutations and resistance to antiretrovirals are shown in a population of Ecuadorian patients with HIV-1. These results will make it possible to issue a warning to health authorities about the need for resistance studies.

Análisis genético de las mutaciones presentes en las poblaciones virales en pacientes con infección por VIH-1 en Ecuador / Genetic analysis of the mutations in HIV-1 infected population in Ecuador

Resumen Introducción Las recomendaciones internacionales de tratamiento anti-retroviral incluyen pruebas de resistencia para orientar el régimen de tratamiento en cada paciente, lo que no está disponible de forma estable en Ecuador. Objetivo Describir las mutaciones que confieren resistencia a anti-retrovirales en una población de pacientes ecuatorianos. Metodología A partir de muestras de plasma de 101 pacientes con VIH-1 con fallo a la terapia anti-retroviral, 15 niños y 86 adultos, se realizó pirosecuenciación con el GS Junior (Roche) y se analizaron las secuencias con el programa DeepChek. Resultados Las mutaciones más frecuentes fueron M184V/I, K101E/P/H, K103N/S, D30N, M46L/I, I54L/M, V82T/F/A/S/L y L90M en adultos, y F77L, K103N/S, M46L/I, V82T/F/A/S/L y L90M en niños. Se encontró una elevada resistencia a los inhibidores de la transcriptasa reversa (TR) no análogos de nucleósidos en poblaciones minoritarias virales de adultos y niños (34,9 y 70%, respectivamente), en los niños, tanto las poblaciones virales mayoritarias como minoritarias, fueron resistente a inhibidores de proteasa (> 45%). Los pacientes que tuvieron un mayor número de esquemas terapéuticos presentaron mayores niveles de resistencia a los anti-retrovirales. La mayoría de las muestras fueron del subtipo B en la región de la TR y proteasa, y CRF25_cpx en integrasa. Conclusiones Se muestran las mutaciones y la resistencia a antiretrovirales en una población de pacientes ecuatorianos con infección por VIH-1, que permitirán realizar un llamado de alerta a las autoridades de salud sobre la necesidad de realizar estudios de resistencia.

Background The international recommendations of antiretroviral treatment include resistance tests to guide the treatment regimen in each patient, which is not available on a regular basis in Ecuador. Aim To describe mutations that confer resistance to antiretrovirals in a population of Ecuadorian patients. Methods Plasma samples from 101 HIV-1 patients with failure to antiretroviral therapy, divided into 15 children and 86 adults, were studied with the GS Junior (Roche) and the sequences were analyzed with the DeepChek program. Results The most frequent mutations were M184V/I, K101E/P/H, K103N/S, D30N, M46L/I, I54L/M, V82T/F/A/S/L and L90M in adults and F77L, K103N/S, M46L/I, V82T/F/A/S/L and L90M in children. High resistance to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors in minority viral populations of adults and children (34.9% and 70%) was detected; in children both viral populations (majority and minority viral populations) (> 45%) were protease inhibitor resistant. Patients who had a greater number of therapeutic regimens had higher levels of resistance to antiretrovirals. Most of the samples were subtype B in the TR and protease region, and CRF25_cpx in integrase. Conclusions Mutations and resistance to antiretrovirals are shown in a population of Ecuadorian patients with HIV-1. These results will make it possible to issue a warning to health authorities about the need for resistance studies.

Differential expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-15Ralpha, IL-15, IL-6 and TNFalpha in synovial fluid from rheumatoid arthritis patients.

BACKGROUND: Pro-inflammatory cytokines are directly implicated in the pathogenesis of Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Variable clinical response to cytokine targeted therapies as TNFalpha and IL-6, strongly highlights the heterogeneity of inflammatory process in RA. Another cytokine, IL-15 has also been related to the inflammatory process in RA. Recently we described for the first time, the presence of its specific receptor, IL-15Ralpha, in synovial fluid (SF). The aim of this work was to compare the expression profile of IL-15Ralpha, its ligand IL-15, TNFalpha and IL-6 and how these cytokines are correlated in SF from RA patients taking as a reference Osteoarthritis (OA), an articular but not autoimmune disease. METHODS: Synovial fluids were obtained from the knee joints of 60 patients, 30 with confirmed diagnosis of RA and 30 with OA diagnosis. The levels of TNFalpha, IL-6, IL-15 and IL-15Ralpha were measured by ELISA. A statistical analysis was performed with GraphPad Prism v5.0 using the Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman's rank correlation. A cluster analysis was run in MeV software v4.9.0 and differences across clusters were evaluated by an ANOVA including post-test analysis. RESULTS: We found higher and significant levels of TNFalpha, IL-6 and IL-15Ralpha but not of IL-15 in RA compared with the OA group. Additionally, a high inter-individual variability in the levels of these 4 cytokines was observed in RA, although we identified 4 patients' subgroups by cluster analysis of cytokines concentration in SF. We also found a positive correlation between IL-15Ralpha-IL-6 and IL-15Ralpha-IL-15, but not for other pairs of cytokines in RA. In addition we found correlation between the value of IL-15Ralpha in SF and disease activity score, DAS28. CONCLUSIONS: In our current work we found a high inter-individual variability in the levels of TNFalpha, IL-6, IL-15 and IL-15Ralpha in SF of RA patients and were identified four principal clusters of cytokines concentration in SF, suggesting the importance of identifying disease subset of patients for personalized treatment. Finally, we found a correlation between IL-15Ralpha-IL-6, IL-15Ralpha-IL-15, but we did not find any correlation between other pairs of studied cytokines in SF.

Proinflammatory soluble interleukin-15 receptor alpha is increased in rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease in which many cytokines have been implicated. In particular, IL-15 is a cytokine involved in the inflammatory processes and bone loss. The aim of this study was to investigate the existence in synovial fluid of soluble IL-15Rα, a private receptor subunit for IL-15 which may act as an enhancer of IL-15-induced proinflammatory cytokines. Soluble IL-15Rα was quantified by a newly developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in samples of synovial fluid from patients with RA and osteoarthritis (OA). The levels of IL-15Rα were significantly increased in RA patients compared to OA patients. Also, we studied the presence of membrane-bound IL-15 in cells from synovial fluids, another element necessary to induce pro-inflammatory cytokines through reverse signaling. Interestingly, we found high levels of IL-6 related to high levels of IL-15Rα in RA but not in OA. Thus, our results evidenced presence of IL-15Rα in synovial fluids and suggested that its pro-inflammatory effect could be related to induction of IL-6.