HIV-1 Low-Frequency Variants Identified in Antiretroviral-Naïve Subjects with Virologic Failure after 12 Months of Follow-Up in Panama

• Main Authors: Ambar Moreno (Author), Claudia González (Author), Jessica Góndola (Author), Oris Chavarría (Author), Alma Ortiz (Author), Jorge Castillo (Author), Juan Castillo Mewa (Author), Juan Miguel Pascale (Author), Alexander Augusto Martínez (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2023-08-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

Low-frequency mutations associated with drug resistance have been related to virologic failure in subjects with no history of pre-treatment and recent HIV diagnosis. In total, 78 antiretroviral treatment (ART)-naïve subjects with a recent HIV diagnosis were selected and followed by CD4+ T lymphocytes and viral load tests to detect virologic failure. We sequenced the basal samples retrospectively using next-generation sequencing (NGS), looking for low-frequency mutations that had not been detected before using the Sanger sequencing method (SSM) and describing the response to ART. Twenty-two subjects developed virologic failure (VF), and thirteen of them had at least one drug-resistance mutation associated with Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (RTI) and Protease Inhibitors (PIs) at frequency levels ≤ 1%, not detected previously in their basal genotyping test. No resistance mutations were observed to Integrase Strand Transfer Inhibitors (INSTIs). We identified a possible cause of VF in ART-naïve subjects with low-frequency mutations detected. To our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of pre-existing drug resistance for HIV-1 minority variants carried out on ART-naïve people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) by analyzing the HIV-1 <i>pol</i> gene using NGS in the country.

Item Description

10.3390/idr15040044
2036-7449