scholarly journals Limited marginal utility of deep sequencing for HIV drug resistance testing in the age of integrase inhibitors

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronit Dalmat ◽  
Negar Makhsous ◽  
Gregory Pepper ◽  
Amalia Magaret ◽  
Keith R. Jerome ◽  
...  

AbstractHIV drug resistance genotyping is a critical tool in the clinical management of HIV infections. Although resistance genotyping has traditionally been conducted using Sanger sequencing, next-generation sequencing (NGS) is emerging as a powerful tool due to its ability to detect lower frequency alleles. However, the value added from NGS approaches to antiviral resistance testing remains to be demonstrated. We compared the variant detection capacity of NGS versus Sanger sequencing methods for resistance genotyping of 144 drug resistance tests (105 protease-reverse transcriptase tests and 39 integrase tests) submitted to our clinical virology laboratory over a four-month period in 2016 for Sanger-based HIV drug resistance testing. NGS detected all true high frequency drug resistance mutations (>20% frequency) found by Sanger sequencing, with greater accuracy in one instance of a Sanger-detected false positive. Freely available online NGS variant callers Hydra and PASeq were superior to Sanger methods for interpretations of allele linkage and automated variant calling. NGS additionally detected low frequency mutations (1-20% frequency) associated with higher levels of drug resistance in 30/105 (29%) of protease-reverse transcriptase tests and 4/39 (10%) of integrase tests. Clinical follow-up of 69 individuals for a median of 674 days found no difference in rates of virological failure between individuals with and without low frequency mutations, although rates of virological failure were higher for individuals with drug-relevant low frequency mutations. However, all 27 individuals who experienced virological failure reported poor adherence to their drug regimen during preceding follow-up time, and all 19 who subsequently improved their adherence achieved viral suppression at later time points consistent with a lack of clinical resistance. In conclusion, in a population with low antiviral resistance emergence, NGS methods detected numerous instances of minor alleles that did not result in subsequent bona fide virological failure due to antiviral resistance.ImportanceGenotypic antiviral resistance testing for HIV is an essential component of the clinical microbiology and virology laboratory. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has emerged as a powerful tool for the detection of low frequency sequence variants (allele frequencies <20%). Whether detecting these low frequency mutations in HIV contributes to improved patient health, however, remains unclear. We compared NGS to conventional Sanger sequencing for detecting resistance mutations for 144 HIV drug resistance tests submitted to our clinical virology laboratory and detected low frequency mutations in 24% of tests. Over approximately two years of follow-up for 69 patients for which we had access to electronic health records, no patients had virological failure due to antiviral resistance. Instead, virological failure was entirely explained by medication non-adherence. While larger studies are required, we suggest that detection of low frequency variants by NGS presents limited marginal clinical utility when compared to standard of care.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronit R. Dalmat ◽  
Negar Makhsous ◽  
Gregory G. Pepper ◽  
Amalia Magaret ◽  
Keith R. Jerome ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTHIV drug resistance genotyping is a critical tool in the clinical management of HIV infections. Although resistance genotyping has traditionally been conducted using Sanger sequencing, next-generation sequencing (NGS) is emerging as a powerful tool due to its ability to detect low-frequency alleles. However, the clinical value added from NGS approaches to antiviral resistance testing remains to be demonstrated. We compared the variant detection capacity of NGS versus Sanger sequencing methods for resistance genotyping in 144 drug resistance tests (105 protease-reverse transcriptase tests and 39 integrase tests) submitted to our clinical virology laboratory over a four-month period in 2016 for Sanger-based HIV drug resistance testing. NGS detected all true high-frequency drug resistance mutations (>20% frequency) found by Sanger sequencing, with greater accuracy in one instance of a Sanger-detected false positive. Freely available online NGS variant callers HyDRA and PASeq were superior to Sanger methods for interpretations of allele linkage and automated variant calling. NGS additionally detected low-frequency mutations (1 to 20% frequency) associated with higher levels of drug resistance in 30/105 (29%) protease-reverse transcriptase tests and 4/39 (10%) integrase tests. In clinical follow-up of 69 individuals for a median of 674 days, we did not find a difference in rates of virological failure between individuals with and without low-frequency mutations, although rates of virological failure were higher for individuals with drug-relevant low-frequency mutations. However, all 27 individuals who experienced virological failure reported poor adherence to their drug regimen during the preceding follow-up time, and all 19 who subsequently improved their adherence achieved viral suppression at later time points, consistent with a lack of clinical resistance. In conclusion, in a population with low antiviral resistance emergence, NGS methods detected numerous instances of minor alleles that did not result in subsequent bona fide virological failure due to antiviral resistance.



Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hezhao Ji ◽  
Paul Sandstrom ◽  
Roger Paredes ◽  
P. Richard Harrigan ◽  
Chanson J. Brumme ◽  
...  

HIV drug resistance is a major global challenge to successful and sustainable antiretroviral therapy. Next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) assays enable more sensitive and quantitative detection of drug-resistance-associated mutations (DRMs) and outperform Sanger sequencing approaches in detecting lower abundance resistance mutations. While NGS is likely to become the new standard for routine HIVDR testing, many technical and knowledge gaps remain to be resolved before its generalized adoption in regular clinical care, public health, and research. Recognizing this, we conceived and launched an international symposium series on NGS HIVDR, to bring together leading experts in the field to address these issues through in-depth discussions and brainstorming. Following the first symposium in 2018 (Winnipeg, MB Canada, 21–22 February, 2018), a second “Winnipeg Consensus” symposium was held in September 2019 in Winnipeg, Canada, and was focused on external quality assurance strategies for NGS HIVDR assays. In this paper, we summarize this second symposium’s goals and highlights.



2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (11) ◽  
pp. 6824-6833 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. R. Lapointe ◽  
W. Dong ◽  
G. Q. Lee ◽  
D. R. Bangsberg ◽  
J. N. Martin ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTLimited access to HIV drug resistance testing in low- and middle-income countries impedes clinical decision-making at the individual patient level. An efficient protocol to address this issue must be established to minimize negative therapeutic outcomes for HIV-1-infected individuals in such settings. This is an observational study to ascertain the potential of newer genomic sequencing platforms, such as the Illumina MiSeq instrument, to provide accurate HIV drug resistance genotypes for hundreds of samples simultaneously. Plasma samples were collected from Canadian patients during routine drug resistance testing (n= 759) and from a Ugandan study cohort (n= 349). Amplicons spanning HIV reverse transcriptase codons 90 to 234 were sequenced with both MiSeq sequencing and conventional Sanger sequencing methods. Sequences were evaluated for nucleotide concordance between methods, using coverage and mixture parameters for quality control. Consensus sequences were also analyzed for disparities in the identification of drug resistance mutations. Sanger and MiSeq sequencing was successful for 881 samples (80%) and 892 samples (81%), respectively, with 832 samples having results from both methods. Most failures were for samples with viral loads of <3.0 log10HIV RNA copies/ml. Overall, 99.3% nucleotide concordance between methods was observed. MiSeq sequencing achieved 97.4% sensitivity and 99.3% specificity in detecting resistance mutations identified by Sanger sequencing. Findings suggest that the Illumina MiSeq platform can yield high-quality data with a high-multiplex “wide” sequencing approach. This strategy can be used for multiple HIV subtypes, demonstrating the potential for widespread individual testing and annual population surveillance in resource-limited settings.



2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 3380-3397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Kyeyune ◽  
Richard M. Gibson ◽  
Immaculate Nankya ◽  
Colin Venner ◽  
Samar Metha ◽  
...  

Most patients failing antiretroviral treatment in Uganda continue to fail their treatment regimen even if a dominant drug-resistant HIV-1 genotype is not detected. In a recent retrospective study, we observed that approximately 30% of HIV-infected individuals in the Joint Clinical Research Centre (Kampala, Uganda) experienced virologic failure with a susceptible HIV-1 genotype based on standard Sanger sequencing. Selection of minority drug-resistant HIV-1 variants (not detectable by Sanger sequencing) under antiretroviral therapy pressure can lead to a shift in the viral quasispecies distribution, becoming dominant members of the virus population and eventually causing treatment failure. Here, we used a novel HIV-1 genotyping assay based on deep sequencing (DeepGen) to quantify low-level drug-resistant HIV-1 variants in 33 patients failing a first-line antiretroviral treatment regimen in the absence of drug-resistant mutations, as screened by standard population-based Sanger sequencing. Using this sensitive assay, we observed that 64% (21/33) of these individuals had low-frequency (or minority) drug-resistant variants in the intrapatient HIV-1 population, which correlated with treatment failure. Moreover, the presence of these minority HIV-1 variants was associated with higher intrapatient HIV-1 diversity, suggesting a dynamic selection or fading of drug-resistant HIV-1 variants from the viral quasispecies in the presence or absence of drug pressure, respectively. This study identified low-frequency HIV drug resistance mutations by deep sequencing in Ugandan patients failing antiretroviral treatment but lacking dominant drug resistance mutations as determined by Sanger sequencing methods. We showed that these low-abundance drug-resistant viruses could have significant consequences for clinical outcomes, especially if treatment is not modified based on a susceptible HIV-1 genotype by Sanger sequencing. Therefore, we propose to make clinical decisions using more sensitive methods to detect minority HIV-1 variants.



2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (11) ◽  
pp. 3319-3326
Author(s):  
Benjamin Chimukangara ◽  
Jennifer Giandhari ◽  
Richard Lessells ◽  
Nonhlanhla Yende-Zuma ◽  
Benn Sartorius ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives To determine the impact of pretreatment low-abundance HIV-1 drug-resistant variants (LA-DRVs) on virological failure (VF) among HIV-1/TB-co-infected individuals treated with NNRTI first-line ART. Methods We conducted a case–control study of 170 adults with HIV-1/TB co-infection. Cases had at least one viral load (VL) ≥1000 RNA copies/mL after ≥6 months on NNRTI-based ART, and controls had sustained VLs &lt;1000 copies/mL. We sequenced plasma viruses by Sanger and MiSeq next-generation sequencing (NGS). We assessed drug resistance mutations (DRMs) using the Stanford drug resistance database, and analysed NGS data for DRMs at ≥20%, 10%, 5% and 2% thresholds. We assessed the effect of pretreatment drug resistance (PDR) on VF. Results We analysed sequences from 45 cases and 125 controls. Overall prevalence of PDR detected at a ≥20% threshold was 4.7% (8/170) and was higher in cases than in controls (8.9% versus 3.2%), P = 0.210. Participants with PDR at ≥20% had almost 4-fold higher odds of VF (adjusted OR 3.7, 95% CI 0.8–18.3) compared with those without, P = 0.104. PDR prevalence increased to 18.2% (31/170) when LA-DRVs at ≥2% were included. Participants with pretreatment LA-DRVs only had 1.6-fold higher odds of VF (adjusted OR 1.6, 95% CI 0.6–4.3) compared with those without, P = 0.398. Conclusions Pretreatment DRMs and LA-DRVs increased the odds of developing VF on NNRTI-based ART, although without statistical significance. NGS increased detection of DRMs but provided no additional benefit in identifying participants at risk of VF at lower thresholds. More studies assessing mutation thresholds predictive of VF are required to inform use of NGS in treatment decisions.





2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 29-39
Author(s):  
A. A. Kirichenko ◽  
D. E. Kireev ◽  
A. V. Kravchenko ◽  
A. V. Pokrovskaya ◽  
U. A. Kuimova ◽  
...  

The aim of the study: to analyze the prevalence of resistance mutations to elsulfavirine and to evaluate the effectiveness of it among HIV-infected treatment-naïve patients in real clinical practice.Materials and methods. The study included 578 patients with HIV infection, which divided into 3 groups. The first group is 354 HIV-infected treatment-naïve patients for whom HIV-1 nucleotide sequences were obtained as part of routine drug resistance testing. The second study group included 111 HIV-infected treatment-naïve patients, tested for drug resistance before the antiretroviral therapy containing elsulfavirine. The third study group included 113 HIV-infected treatment-naïve patients, each of whom was assigned a treatment regimen containing elsulfavirine without prior drug resistance testing. The observation period for patients of the second and third groups who received treatment was 24 weeks. To assess the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy in patients, viral load, CD4+ T-cell counts, and adherence to therapy were assessed. HIV-1 subtypes and drug resistance mutations were determined using the Stanford HIV Resistance Database (v. 8.9-1). To clarify the results of subtyping, phylogenetic analysis of nucleotide sequences was carried out using the MEGA program (v. 6.0).Results. The prevalence of mutations associated with decreased susceptibility to elsulfavirine among HIV-infected treatment-naïve patients was 1.7% and 4.5% for the first and second groups of patients, respectively. All of the patients have only single resistance mutations which, according to the results of preclinical studies, cannot cause drug resistance. The use of elsulfavirine in real clinical practice among treatment-naïve patients has demonstrated good virological and immunological efficacy of the drug. As a result of 24 weeks of therapy in patients of the second group, no treatment ineffectiveness, and the development of drug resistance were observed. Among the patients of the third group, 6 patients (5.3%) have the virological failure of therapy associated with the resistance to the used drugs. All patients with virological failure had a resistance mutation profile associated with a high level of drug resistance to one of the drugs in the treatment regimen, lamivudine. Additionally, 1 patient had a combination of mutations that reduce susceptibility to elsulfavirine, and 4 patients had mutations that can reduce susceptibility to elsulfavirine in combination with other mutations.Conclusion. The low prevalence of mutations associated with a decrease in susceptibility to elsulfavirine and the absence of combinations of mutations make it possible to predict the successful use of this drug for Russian treatment-naïve patients. Reported cases of virological failure of antiretroviral therapy are difficult to interpret in the context of elsulfavirine due to the lack of an exact list of mutations and their combinations, and associations with the degree of resistance to it. This study describes for the first time the mutation profiles in patients with virological failure of therapy containing elsulfavirine and demonstrates the necessity of the further study of drug resistance profile to drug in vitro and in vivo.



2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-50
Author(s):  
Nicholaus Steven Mazuguni ◽  
Festo Mazuguni ◽  
Eva Prosper Muro

Introduction: In Tanzania, the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDEC) has implemented the Option B+ as one of the strategies to facilitate achievement of elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV. To prevent emergence of drug resistance mutations early identification of option B+ failure is critical. The emergence of drug resistance mutation and subsequent treatment failure poses a major concern for HIV program in low- and middle-income resource settings where treatment options are limited. Methodology: We recruited treatment naïve, treatment experienced HIV-1 positive pregnant women and those who had prophylaxis in their previous pregnancy in Kilimanjaro, northern Tanzania August 2016 to February 2017. Whole blood (2ml) for biochemistry, viral load and drug resistance testing were taken at baseline. ARV drug resistance testing was done on women with VL ≥ 1000 copies/ml. We used descriptive statistic and logistic regression to determine the strength of association between virologic outcome (virologic failure) and independent predictors. Results: One hundred and forty eight (148) pregnant HIV-positive women were enrolled in the study with mean age of 29.82 years (SD=6.17) from August, 2016 to February, 2017. Virologic failure was demonstrated in 34 (23%) with viral load   ≥ 1,000 copies/ml. Genotyping results were available from 26 women, mutations associated with ARV resistance were detected in 23.1% (n = 6/26). Among the six women with ARV resistance mutation 4(66.7%) had high level resistance and 2(33.3%) had low level resistance. Among the 26 samples genotyped 15(58%) viruses were subtype A, while eight were subtype C (31%) and three subtypes D (11%). The most dominant drug resistance mutations against the reverse transcriptase inhibitors for the women with high level resistance were K103N, Y188L, D67N, K70R, M184V, T215F, K219EQ, and the low-level resistance was E138A. The older age was associated with virological failure compared to those who were < 20 year of age. Conclusion: Viral load testing should be done on women who were already on antiretroviral treatment on their first antenatal visit to ensure early detection of virological failure and enable clinicians to take an appropriate course of action on their management. Educational intervention on adherence should be targeted at an early stage to women with virological failure during pregnancy to reduce the emergence of HIV-1 drug resistance mutations.



2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (9) ◽  
pp. 2785-2800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aubin J. Nanfack ◽  
Andrew D. Redd ◽  
Jude S. Bimela ◽  
Genesis Ncham ◽  
Emmanuel Achem ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The global intensification of antiretroviral therapy (ART) can lead to increased rates of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) mutations in treated and also in ART-naive patients. ART-naive HIV-1-infected patients from Cameroon were subjected to a multimethod HIVDR analysis using amplification-refractory mutation system (ARMS)-PCR, Sanger sequencing, and longitudinal next-generation sequencing (NGS) to determine their profiles for the mutations K103N, Y181C, K65R, M184V, and T215F/Y. We processed 66 ART-naive HIV-1-positive patients with highly diverse subtypes that underlined the predominance of CRF02_AG and the increasing rate of F2 and other recombinant forms in Cameroon. We compared three resistance testing methods for 5 major mutation sites. Using Sanger sequencing, the overall prevalence of HIVDR mutations was 7.6% (5/66) and included all studied mutations except K65R. Comparing ARMS-PCR with Sanger sequencing as a reference, we obtained a sensitivity of 100% (5/5) and a specificity of 95% (58/61), caused by three false-positive calls with ARMS-PCR. For 32/66 samples, we obtained NGS data and we observed two additional mismatches made up of minority variants (7% and 18%) that might not be clinically relevant. Longitudinal NGS analyses revealed changes in HIVDR mutations in all five positive subjects that could not be attributed to treatment. In one of these cases, superinfection led to the temporary masking of a resistant virus. HIVDR mutations can be sensitively detected by ARMS-PCR and sequencing methods with comparable performances. Longitudinal changes in HIVDR mutations have to be considered even in the absence of treatment.



PLoS ONE ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. e86771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Anne Vandenhende ◽  
Pantxika Bellecave ◽  
Patricia Recordon-Pinson ◽  
Sandrine Reigadas ◽  
Yannick Bidet ◽  
...  


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