HIV-1 Drug Resistance Test in Khanna

HIV-1 Drug Resistance testing test along with clinical presentation and other laboratory markers can determine the progress of the disease for the management of HIV-1 infected patients. It is used to evaluate the outcome of a patient’s treatment by calculating the baseline HIV-1 RNA level or by observing the effects of antiretroviral therapy by analyzing changes in EDTA plasma HIV-1 RNA levels during the course of treatment.

The testing can also assess whether a patient with HIV has a mutated form of the virus that does not respond to antiretroviral therapy. The drug resistance can either be transmitted at the time of HIV infection or acquired during previous treatments. If a patient is failing and not responding to first-line antiretroviral therapy, he/she is referred for HIV-1 Drug Resistance testing before starting the second-line drugs.

However, it is important to note that this test is not proposed to be used as a screening test for the presence of HIV-1 in blood or as a diagnostic test for confirmation of the HIV-1 infection.

Your doctor can ask you to take HIV-1 Drug Resistance testing if he is planning to switch the medicines from first- to second-line antiretroviral therapy. Switching of medicines and adjustment in the treatment therapy become highly important because if an HIV-infected patient becomes resistant to a drug and keeps on taking the same drug, HIV will multiply faster as the drug will not have the potential to stop it from replicating.

Besides, HIV drug-resistance testing is also advised for the first-time patient entering into the care to guide the selection of the initial antiretroviral drugs regimen, according to the guideline.

HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system, the body's natural defense system, and is of two types;

• HIV-1 causes almost all cases of AIDS globally.
• HIV-2 causes an AIDS-like illness, it is generally found in North America.

The drugs which act to stop the replication of the virus are called antiretroviral drugs.

The more commonly used antiretroviral drugs belong to five drug classes: nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), protease inhibitors (PIs), integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) and CCR5 antagonists. It has been shown that the HIV virus is a highly mutatable virus. Alterations in the genetic makeup of the virus can render it immune to a particular class of drug rendering it ineffective as a treatment option.

Studies have shown that failure of first-line antiretroviral drugs has increased the risk of cross-resistance to NRTI. Therefore, patients who failed after multiple NRTI-substitutions on first-line drugs should be referred for HIV-1 Drug Resistance testing before selecting NRTIs for optimum second-line combination drugs.

HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system, the body's natural defense system, and is of two types;

HIV-1 causes almost all cases of AIDS globally.
HIV-2 causes an AIDS-like illness, it is generally found in North America.

The drugs which act to stop the replication of the virus are called antiretroviral drugs.

The more commonly used antiretroviral drugs belong to five drug classes: nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), protease inhibitors (PIs), integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) and CCR5 antagonists. It has been shown that the HIV virus is a highly mutatable virus. Alterations in the genetic makeup of the virus can render it immune to a particular class of drug rendering it ineffective as a treatment option.

Studies have shown that failure of first-line antiretroviral drugs has increased the risk of cross-resistance to NRTI. Therefore, patients who failed after multiple NRTI-substitutions on first-line drugs should be referred for HIV-1 Drug Resistance testing before selecting NRTIs for optimum second-line combination drugs.