Short-term treatment outcomes in human immunodeficiency virus type-1 and hepatitis B virus co-infections

Abstract

BackgroundCo-infection of HIV with HBV is common in West Africa but little information is available on the effects of HBV on short-term therapy for HIV patients. A 28 day longitudinal study was conducted to examine short-term antiretroviral therapy (ART) outcomes in HIV infected individuals with HBV co-infection.MethodsPlasma from 18 HIV infected individuals co-infected with HBV and matched controls with only HIV infection were obtained at initiation, and 7 and 28 days after ART. HIV-1 viral load changes were monitored. Clinical and demographic data were also obtained from patient folders, and HIV-1 drug resistance mutation and subtype analysis performed.ResultsThe presence of HBV co-infection did not significantly affect HIV-1 viral load changes within 7 or 28 days. The CD4+ counts on the other hand of patients significantly affected the magnitude of HIV-1 viral load decline after 7 days (ρ = −0.441, p = 0.040), while the pre-ART HIV-1 VL (ρ = 0.844, p = <0.001) and sex (U = 19.0, p = 0.020) also determined HIV-1 viral load outcomes after 28 days of ART. Even though the geometric sensitivity score of HIV-1 strains were influenced by the HIV-1 subtypes (U = 56.00; p = 0.036), it was not a confounder for ART outcomes.ConclusionsThere may be the need to consider the confounder effects of sex, pre-ART CD4+, and pre-ART HIV-1 viral load in the discourse on HIV and HBV co-infection.

Genetic landscape for majority and minority HIV-1 drug resistance mutations in antiretroviral therapy naive patients in Accra, Ghana

“…The original protocol was modified to amplify the polymerase ( pol ) gene fragment spanning the protease (PR) and up to 230 amino acids in the reverse transcriptase gene (RT). Generation of PCR products and sequencing was done as described previously [ 24 ]. Briefly, the PCR products were cleaned using the High Pure PCR Product Purification Kit (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany).…”

“…Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using a partial pol region containing 867 nucleotides as described [ 24 , 27 ]. MEGA version 11 was used to create Neighbour-joining trees based on Kimura's 2-parameter distance.…”