Increasing trend of transmitted integrase inhibitor resistance in a cohort of antiretroviral therapy-naive people living with HIV.

Abstract

Drug regimens containing integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) are widely recommended by international guidelines for ART-naive people living with HIV (PLWH).1,2 However, INSTI resistance mutations are uncommon and therefore their surveillance is not suggested before starting ART. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence trend of transmitted INSTI drug resistance (DR) and to assess factors associated with transmitted INSTI resistance among ART-naive PLWH over the past decade. We conducted a time-trend, single-centre study over the period 2009–19 on adult naive PLWH with a genotypic resistance test (GRT) performed before the ART initiation. GRT was determined by Sanger sequencing using an ABI PRISM 3130xl Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA); we included in the analysis the immediate pre-ART GRT available in people newly diagnosed with HIV infection. The degree of resistance to each INSTI drug was calculated using the Genotypic Resistance Interpretation Algorithm of the Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database Program (version 9.1.1) (https://hivdb.stanford.edu/hivdb/by-patterns/). The obtained scores were used to classify the presence of low-level, intermediate or high-level resistance to each INSTI drug and to the INSTI drug class. DR within the INSTI class was defined by the presence of at least low-level resistance to ≥1 drug of the INSTI class.