Prevalence of drug resistance mutations among ART-naive and -experienced HIV-infected patients in Sierra Leone
DATE:
2019-04-15
UNIVERSAL IDENTIFIER: http://hdl.handle.net/11093/4051
EDITED VERSION: https://academic.oup.com/jac/article/74/7/2024/5464304
UNESCO SUBJECT: 3205.05 Enfermedades Infecciosas ; 3208.02 Acción de Los Medicamentos ; 3208 Farmacodinámica
DOCUMENT TYPE: article
ABSTRACT
Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) in HIV-infected
ART-naive and -experienced patients in Sierra Leone.
Patients and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of HIV-positive adults aged 18 years at Connaught
Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone in November 2017. Sequencing was performed in the reverse transcriptase,
protease and integrase regions, and interpreted using the Stanford HIVDR database andWHO 2009mutation list.
Results: Two hundred and fifteen HIV-infected patients were included (64 ART naive and 151 ART experienced).
The majority (66%) were female, the median age was 36 years and the median ART exposure was 48months.
The majority (83%) were infected with HIV-1 subtype CRF02_AG. In the ART-naive group, the pretreatment drug
resistance (PDR) prevalence was 36.7% (14.2% to NRTIs and 22.4% to NNRTIs). The most prevalent PDR mutations
were K103N (14.3%), M184V (8.2%) and Y181C (4.1%). In the ART-experienced group, 64.4% harboured
resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) and the overall prevalence of RAMs to NRTIs and NNRTIs was 85.2%
(52/61) and 96.7% (59/61), respectively. The most prevalent RAMs were K103N (40.7%), M184V (28.8%), D67N
(15.3%) and T215I/F/Y (15.3%). Based on the genotypic susceptibility score estimates, 22.4% of ART-naive
patients and 56% of ART-experienced patients were not susceptible to first-line ART used in Sierra Leone.
Conclusions: A high prevalence of circulating NRTI- and NNRTI-resistant variants was observed in ART-naive and
-experienced HIV-1-infected patients in Sierra Leone. This necessitates the implementation of HIVDR surveillance programmes
to inform national ART guidelines for the treatment and monitoring of HIV-infected patients in Sierra Leone.