Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of resistance mutations in the protease gene of HIV-1 strains isolated from north Indian antiretroviral (ARV) treatment-naive patients and to assess the phylogenetic relatedness of these strains with known HIV-1 strains. Fifty-four HIV-1 strains isolated from treatment-naive patients (n = 54) were included in this study. Resistance genotyping for the protease gene was performed using semi-nested PCR and DNA sequencing. The sequences were aligned (ClustalW) and a phylogenetic tree was built (MEGA 4 software). Drug resistance (DR) pattern was analyzed using the Stanford HIV-DR database and the IAS-USA mutation list. For subtyping purposes, all the nucleotide sequences were submitted to the REGA HIV-1 subtyping tool version 2.0l. All the strains (100%) were found to belong to the C subtype and to harbor at least two secondary mutations in the protease gene. The most frequent mutations were H69K and I93L (52 of 52 strains), followed by I15V (80.7%), L19I (69.2%), M36I (67.3%), R41K (94.2%), L63P (61.5%), and L89M (82.7%). This study confirms that HIV-1 subtype C predominates in northern India. Protease secondary mutations associated with drug resistance to protease inhibitors (PIs) were present with high frequency in the HIV-1 C subtype strains isolated from north Indian ARV treatment-naive patients, but no primary resistance mutations were found in this region. We suggest that resistance testing in HIV-1 infected patients should ideally be performed before the initiation of therapy to tailor the treatment for the individual to achieve the optimal therapeutic outcome.
Highlights
This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of resistance mutations in the protease gene of HIV-1 strains isolated from north Indian antiretroviral (ARV) treatment-naive patients and to assess the phylogenetic relatedness of these strains with known HIV-1 strains
A major obstacle to the long-term efficacy of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is the emergence of drug resistance mutations in the polymerase gene of HIV-1, which reduces the susceptibility of the gene to anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs [4]
The accessory mutations may not result in a significant decrease of sensitivity to ARV drugs, but they have been reported to be associated with increased viral fitness with primary mutations
Summary
This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of resistance mutations in the protease gene of HIV-1 strains isolated from north Indian antiretroviral (ARV) treatment-naive patients and to assess the phylogenetic relatedness of these strains with known HIV-1 strains. Protease secondary mutations associated with drug resistance to protease inhibitors (PIs) were present with high frequency in the HIV-1 C subtype strains isolated from north Indian ARV treatment-naive patients, but no primary resistance mutations were found in this region. It has been estimated that approximately 2.31 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in India [2] and nearly 9.7 million people are receiving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2012 as per UNAIDS global report 2013. The transmission of resistant variants to uninfected individuals will cause serious clinical and public health problems
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