Open AccessHIV-1 Variants and Drug Resistance in Pregnant Women from Bata (Equatorial Guinea): 2012-2013
Author(s) -
Patrícia Álvarez,
Carolina Fernández McPhee,
Luís Prieto,
Leticia Martín,
Jacinta Obiang,
Pedro Avedillo,
Antonio Vargas,
Pablo Rojo,
Agustín Benito,
José Tomás Ramos,
África Holguín
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0165333
Subject(s) - drug resistance , virology , regimen , reverse transcriptase inhibitor , transmission (telecommunications) , medicine , protease inhibitor (pharmacology) , biology , viral load , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , antiretroviral therapy , genetics , engineering , electrical engineering
Objectives This is the first study describing drug resistance mutations (DRM) and HIV-1 variants among infected pregnant women in Equatorial Guinea (GQ), a country with high (6.2%) and increasing HIV prevalence. Methods Dried blood spots (DBS) were collected from November 2012 to December 2013 from 69 HIV-1 infected women participating in a prevention of mother-to-child transmission program in the Hospital Regional of Bata and Primary Health Care Centre María Rafols , Bata, GQ. The transmitted (TDR) or acquired (ADR) antiretroviral drug resistance mutations at partial pol sequence among naive or antiretroviral therapy (ART)-exposed women were defined following WHO or IAS USA 2015 lists, respectively. HIV-1 variants were identified by phylogenetic analyses. Results A total of 38 of 69 HIV-1 specimens were successfully amplified and sequenced. Thirty (79%) belonged to ART-experienced women: 15 exposed to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) monotherapy, and 15 to combined ART (cART) as first regimen including two NRTI and one non-NRTI (NNRTI) or one protease inhibitor (PI). The TDR rate was only found for PI (3.4%). The ADR rate was 37.5% for NNRTI, 8.7% for NRTI and absent for PI or NRTI+NNRTI. HIV-1 group M non-B variants caused most (97.4%) infections, mainly (78.9%) recombinants: CRF02_AG (55.2%), CRF22_A101 (10.5%), subtype C (10.5%), unique recombinants (5.3%), and A3, D, F2, G, CRF06_cpx and CRF11_cpx (2.6% each). Conclusions The high rate of ADR to retrotranscriptase inhibitors (mainly to NNRTIs) observed among pretreated pregnant women reinforces the importance of systematic DRM monitoring in GQ to reduce HIV-1 resistance transmission and to optimize first and second-line ART regimens when DRM are present.