scholarly journals Increased acquired protease inhibitor drug resistance mutations in minor HIV-1 quasispecies from infected patients suspected of failing on national second-line therapy in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adetayo Emmanuel Obasa ◽  
Anoop T Ambikan ◽  
Soham Gupta ◽  
Ujjwal Neogi ◽  
Graeme Brendon Jacobs

Abstract Background: HIV-1C has been shown to have a greater risk of virological failure and reduced susceptibility towards boosted protease inhibitors (bPIs), a component of second-line combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in South Africa. This study entailed an evaluation of HIV-1 drug resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) among minor viral populations through high-throughput sequencing genotypic resistance testing (HTS-GRT) in patients on the South African national second-line cART regimen receiving bPIs.Methods: During 2017 and 2018, 67 patient samples were sequenced using high throughput sequencing (HTS), of which 56 samples were included in the analysis because the patient’s treatment regimen were available at the time of sampling. All patients were receiving bPIs as part of their cART. Viral RNA was extracted, and complete pol genes were amplified and sequenced using Illumina HiSeq2500, followed by bioinformatics analysis to quantify the RAMs according to the Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database.Results: Statistically significantly higher PI RAMs were observed in minor viral quasispecies (25%; 14/56) compared to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (9%; 5/56; p=0.042) and integrase inhibitor RAM (4%; 2/56; p=0.002). The majority of the drug resistance mutations in the minor viral quasispecies were observed in the V82A mutation (n=13) in protease and K65R (n=5), K103N (n=7) and M184V (n=5) in reverse transcriptase.Conclusions: HTS-GRT improved the identification of PI and reverse transcriptase inhibitor (RTI) RAMs in second-line cART patients from South Africa compared to the conventional GRT with ≥20% used in Sanger-based sequencing. Several RTI RAMs, such as K65R, M184V or K103N and PI RAM V82A, were identified in <20% of the population. Deep sequencing could be of greater value in detecting acquired resistance mutations early.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adetayo Emmanuel Obasa ◽  
Anoop T. Ambikan ◽  
Soham Gupta ◽  
Ujjwal Neogi ◽  
Graeme Brendon Jacobs

Abstract Background HIV-1C has been shown to have a greater risk of virological failure and reduced susceptibility towards boosted protease inhibitors (bPIs), a component of second-line combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in South Africa. This study entailed an evaluation of HIV-1 drug resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) among minor viral populations through high-throughput sequencing genotypic resistance testing (HTS-GRT) in patients on the South African national second-line cART regimen receiving bPIs. Methods During 2017 and 2018, 67 patient samples were sequenced using high-throughput sequencing (HTS), of which 56 samples were included in the final analysis because the patient’s treatment regimen was available at the time of sampling. All patients were receiving bPIs as part of their cART. Viral RNA was extracted, and complete pol genes were amplified and sequenced using Illumina HiSeq2500, followed by bioinformatics analysis to quantify the RAMs according to the Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database. Results Statistically significantly higher PI RAMs were observed in minor viral quasispecies (25%; 14/56) compared to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (9%; 5/56; p = 0.042) and integrase inhibitor RAM (4%; 2/56; p = 0.002). The majority of the drug resistance mutations in the minor viral quasispecies were observed in the V82A mutation (n = 13) in protease and K65R (n = 5), K103N (n = 7) and M184V (n = 5) in reverse transcriptase. Conclusions HTS-GRT improved the identification of PI and reverse transcriptase inhibitor (RTI) RAMs in second-line cART patients from South Africa compared to the conventional GRT with ≥20% used in Sanger-based sequencing. Several RTI RAMs, such as K65R, M184V or K103N and PI RAM V82A, were identified in < 20% of the population. Deep sequencing could be of greater value in detecting acquired resistance mutations early.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adetayo Emmanuel Obasa ◽  
Anoop T Ambikan ◽  
Soham Gupta ◽  
Ujjwal Neogi ◽  
Graeme Brendon Jacobs

Abstract Background: HIV-1C has been shown to have a greater risk of virological failure and reduced susceptibility towards boosted protease inhibitors (bPIs), a component of second-line combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in South Africa. This study entailed an evaluation of HIV-1 drug resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) among minor viral populations through high-throughput sequencing genotypic resistance testing (HTS-GRT) in patients suspected of failing on the South African national second-line cART regimen with bPIs.Methods: During 2017 and 2018, 67 patient samples were selected, of which 56 samples were successfully analyzed. All patients were receiving bPIs as part of their cART. Viral RNA was extracted, and complete pol genes were amplified and sequenced using Illumina HiSeq2500, followed by bioinformatics analysis to quantify the RAMs according to the Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database.Results: Statistically significantly (p<0.001) higher PI RAMs were observed in minor viral quasispecies (25%; 14/56) compared to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (11%; 6/56), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (9%; 5/56) and integrase inhibitor RAM (4%; 2/56). The majority of the drug resistance mutations in the minor viral quasispecies were observed in the V82A mutation (n=13) in protease and K65R (n=5), K103N (n=7) and M184V (n=5) in reverse transcriptase.Conclusions: HTS-GRT improved the identification of PI and reverse transcriptase inhibitor (RTI) RAMs in second-line cART patients from South Africa compared to the conventional GRT with ≥20% used in Sanger-based sequencing. Several RTI RAMs, such as K65R, M184V or K103N and PI RAM V82A, were identified in <20% of the population. Deep sequencing could be of greater value in detecting acquired resistance mutations early.


Viruses ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 806
Author(s):  
Shambhu G. Aralaguppe ◽  
Anoop T. Ambikan ◽  
Manickam Ashokkumar ◽  
Milner M. Kumar ◽  
Luke Elizabeth Hanna ◽  
...  

The detection of drug resistance mutations (DRMs) in minor viral populations is of potential clinical importance. However, sophisticated computational infrastructure and competence for analysis of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data lack at most diagnostic laboratories. Thus, we have proposed a new pipeline, MiDRMpol, to quantify DRM from the HIV-1 pol region. The gag-vpu region of 87 plasma samples from HIV-infected individuals from three cohorts was amplified and sequenced by Illumina HiSeq2500. The sequence reads were adapter-trimmed, followed by analysis using in-house scripts. Samples from Swedish and Ethiopian cohorts were also sequenced by Sanger sequencing. The pipeline was validated against the online tool PASeq (Polymorphism Analysis by Sequencing). Based on an error rate of <1%, a value of >1% was set as reliable to consider a minor variant. Both pipelines detected the mutations in the dominant viral populations, while discrepancies were observed in minor viral populations. In five HIV-1 subtype C samples, minor mutations were detected at the <5% level by MiDRMpol but not by PASeq. MiDRMpol is a computationally as well as labor efficient bioinformatics pipeline for the detection of DRM from HTS data. It identifies minor viral populations (<20%) of DRMs. Our method can be incorporated into large-scale surveillance of HIV-1 DRM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rabia Can Sarinoglu ◽  
Uluhan Sili ◽  
Ufuk Hasdemir ◽  
Burak Aksu ◽  
Guner Soyletir ◽  
...  

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the surveillance of transmitted drug resistance mutations (TDRMs) to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of HIV treatment programs. Objective: Our aim was to determine the TDRMs and evaluate the distribution of HIV-1 subtypes using and compared next-generation sequencing (NGS) and Sanger-based sequencing (SBS) in a cohort of 44 antiretroviral treatment-naïve patients. Methods: All samples that were referred to the microbiology laboratory for HIV drug resistance analysis between December 2016 and February 2018 were included in the study. After exclusions, 44 treatment-naive adult patients with a viral load of >1000 copies/mL were analyzed. DNA sequencing for reverse transcriptase and protease regions was performed using both DeepChek ABL single round kit and Sanger-based ViroSeq HIV-1 Genotyping System. The mutations and HIV-1 subtypes were analyzed using the Stanford HIVdb version 8.6.1 Genotypic Resistance software, and TDRMs were assessed using the WHO surveillance drug-resistance mutation database. HIV-1 subtypes were confirmed by constructing a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree using Los Alamos IQ-Tree software. Results: NGS identified nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI)-TDRMs in 9.1% of the patients, non-nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-TDRMs in 6.8% of the patients, and protease inhibitor (PI)-TDRMs in 18.2% of the patients at a detection threshold of ≥1%. Using SBS, 2.3% and 6.8% of the patients were found to have NRTI- and NNRTI-TDRMs, respectively, but no major PI mutations were detected. M41L, L74I, K65R, M184V, and M184I related to NRTI, K103N to NNRTI, and N83D, M46I, I84V, V82A, L24I, L90M, I54V to the PI sites were identified using NGS. Most mutations were found in low-abundance (frequency range: 1.0% - 4.7%) HIV-1 variants, except M41L and K103N. The subtypes of the isolates were found as follows; 61.4% subtype B, 18.2% subtype B/CRF02_AG recombinant, 13.6% subtype A, 4.5% CRF43_02G, and 2.3% CRF02_AG. All TDRMs, except K65R, were detected in HIV-1 subtype B isolates.. Conclusion: The high diversity of protease site TDRMs in the minority HIV-1 variants and prevalence of CRFs were remarkable in this study. All minority HIV-1 variants were missed by conventional sequencing. TDRM prevalence among minority variants appears to be decreasing over time at our center.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 3256-3271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sushama Telwatte ◽  
Anna C. Hearps ◽  
Adam Johnson ◽  
Catherine F. Latham ◽  
Katie Moore ◽  
...  

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 335-342
Author(s):  
Tennison Onoriode Digban ◽  
Benson Chucks Iweriebor ◽  
Larry Chikwelu Obi ◽  
Uchechuwku Nwodo ◽  
Anthony Ifeanyi Okoh

Background: Transmitted drug resistance (TDR) remains a significant threat to Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients that are not exposed to antiretroviral treatment. Although, combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) has reduced deaths among infected individuals, emergence of drug resistance is gradually on rise. Objective: To determine the drug resistance mutations and subtypes of HIV-1 among pre-treatment patients in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Methods: Viral RNA was extracted from blood samples of 70 pre-treatment HIV-1 patients while partial pol gene fragment amplification was achieved with specific primers by RT-PCR followed by nested PCR and positive amplicons were sequenced utilizing ABI Prism 316 genetic sequencer. Drug resistance mutations (DRMs) analysis was performed by submitting the generated sequences to Stanford HIV drug resistance database. Results: Viral DNA was successful for 66 (94.3%) samples of which 52 edited sequences were obtained from the protease and 44 reverse transcriptase sequences were also fully edited. Four major protease inhibitor (PI) related mutations (I54V, V82A/L, L76V and L90M) were observed in seven patients while several other minor and accessory PIs were also identified. A total of 11(25.0%) patients had NRTIs related mutations while NNRTIs were observed among 14(31.8%) patients. K103N/S, V106M and M184V were the most common mutations identified among the viral sequences. Phylogenetic analysis of the partial pol gene indicated all sequences clustered with subtype C. Conclusions: This study indicates that HIV-1 subtype C still predominates and responsible for driving the epidemic in the Eastern Cape of South Africa with slow rise in the occurrence of transmitted drug resistance.


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