Genotypic testing for HIV-1 drug resistance using dried blood samples

• Published in: Archives of virology Vol. 155; no. 7; pp. 1117 - 1125
• Main Authors: Lira, Rosalia, Valdez-Salazar, Hilda, Vazquez-Rosales, Guillermo, Rojas-Montes, Othon, Ruiz-Tachiquin, Martha, Torres-Ibarra, Rocio, Cano-Dominguez, Carlos, Maldonado-Rodríguez, Angelica, Gomez, Alejandro, Muñoz, Onofre, Alvarez-Muñoz, Ma-Teresa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Vienna : Springer Vienna 01.07.2010; Springer Vienna; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Anti-HIV Agents - pharmacology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Viral; Drug therapy; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes, pol - genetics; Genotype; HIV Infections - drug therapy; HIV Infections - virology; HIV-1 - classification; HIV-1 - drug effects; HIV-1 - genetics; Human immunodeficiency virus 1; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infectious Diseases; Male; Medical Microbiology; Medical sciences; Microbiology; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Mutation; Original Article; Patients; Plasma; RNA, Viral - blood; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids; Viral Load; Viremia - virology; Virology; Young Adult; United States > US; Mexico; Drug Resistance Testing; Viral Load Determination; Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus Reverse Transcriptase; Suboptimal Storage; Drug Resistance Genotype; Infection; Resistance; Immunopathology; Viral disease; AIDS; Immune deficiency; Blood
• ISSN: 0304-8608; 1432-8798
• DOI: 10.1007/s00705-010-0696-y

In third-world countries, dried blood samples (DBS) are a convenient alternative to plasma for monitoring viral load during HIV-1 therapy. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of using DBS to perform HIV-1 drug resistance genotyping in a ViroSeq assay in which the protease and reverse transcriptase regions of the pol gene are analyzed. Fifty-seven antiretroviral genotypes from plasma samples were tested, and drug resistance genotypes were determined. Only 38.6% paired DBS samples were sequenced. Failure to amplify DNA from DBS samples generally correlated with plasma viral loads below log₁₀ 5.1. The majority of the mutations identified in plasma pol sequences were also found in their DBS counterpart, with a concordance in genotype interpretation of 96.4%. Several factors were identified that could potentially improve both the sensitivity and the quality of genotype data, such as sample storage conditions and sequence analysis. Therefore, DBS sampling is useful to determine viral load and drug resistance genotypes in HIV patients.