HIV-1 Drug Resistance, Distribution of Subtypes, and Drug Resistance-Associated Mutations in Virologic Failure Individuals in Chengdu, Southwest China, 2014-2016

Abstract

The National Free Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) Program in China has initiated to provide ART to HIV-1 patients, which has acted as an efficient method to suppress viral replication and helps prevent onward transmissions. But the problems of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) may also come along. There is little data on the prevalence of HIVDR in Chengdu, where the number of HIV/AIDS patients ranks first among provincial capitals. Therefore, epidemiological surveillance was conducted in this area. From 2014 to 2016, HIV/AIDS patients (15 years and older) who had received first-line ART for at least six months were enrolled. Demographic, behavioral information and medical history were recorded, and blood samples were collected for viral loads and immune cell count analyses. HIV-1 pol was obtained for HIV-1 subtypes and drug resistance-associated mutations (DRMs) among virologic failure patients. A total of 13,782 individuals were enrolled, and 481 samples were sequenced for subtypes and drug resistance analysis. Six subtypes were identified, among which CRF01_AE (54.3%) and CRF07_BC (41.6%) were the dominant subtypes, and CRF55_01B (0.4%) was detected in Chengdu for the first time. The prevalence of HIVDR in treatment-experienced patients was 1.8%, with 1.2% to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), 1.7% to non-NRTIs (NNRTIs), and 0.14% to protease inhibitors (PIs). The leading DRMs observed in the study were M184I/V (59.59%) against NRTIs and K103N (37.55%) against NNRTIs. This study focused on the HIVDR surveillance among patients receiving treatment in Chengdu. The overall prevalence of HIVDR was relatively low among treated patients. These findings were believed to be contributed to an understanding of HIV-1 subtypes, HIVDR prevalence, and DRMs in Chengdu and thereby optimizing clinical management, prevention, and control of HIV.

HIV-1 Drug Resistance Profiles of Low-Level Viremia Patients and Factors Associated With the Treatment Effect of ART-Treated Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study in Jiangsu, China

“…Previous studies on DR of LLV patients rarely provided detailed profiles of different genders. But previous studies on VF patients in China indicated that the DR rate of female VF patients was higher than that of males (21,22), which was consistent with the results of this study. This may be due to higher PDR in the included female patients or because fewer female patients were collected and more resistant mutations occurred in these women.…”

Drug Resistance Profile Among HIV-1 Infections Experiencing ART with Low-Level Viral Load in Guangdong China During 2011–2022: A Retrospective Study

“…More attention should be paid to differentiate between adherence-and resistance-driven LLVL, which are not mutually exclusive. In line with the evidence that different frequencies of DRMs and DR among HIV-1 subtypes circulate among drug-naive and treated individuals in China, 43,44 there were different DR rates among different genotypes in this study with the difference no statistically significant (Table 1).…”

Broad synergistic antiviral efficacy between a novel elite controller-derived dipeptide and antiretrovirals against drug-resistant HIV-1

“…The existence of highly treatment-experienced patients with few remaining therapeutic options and the spread of drug-resistant HIV-1 illustrate the need to develop new anti-HIV-1 drugs despite the great success of ART in most patients ( Clutter et al., 2016 ; Biswas et al., 2019 ; Chen et al., 2020 ). Here, we describe that our novel compound WG-am has synergistic effects with four antiretrovirals—RAL, TDF, DRV, and EFV—using drug-sensitive and drug-resistant isolates.…”