HIV 1 Drug Resistance Complete

There is a vast range of drugs presently used for treatment of HIV related infections. Over the period of treatment, virus may develop mutation and hence resistance against regular and proven drugs. Instead of direct exposure of new drugs to the patient, tests can be performed ex-situ to check if mutation in the virus will hinder the next treatment. 

There are mainly three classes of drugs used for treatments: Protease inhibitors, Integrase inhibitors and Reverse transcriptase inhibitors. 

 Three main factors by which a virus propagates are Protease enzyme, Integrase enzyme and reverse transcriptase enzyme. Drugs used for treating the effect of virus in an virus-affected individual target these mechanisms to inhibit them. Mutation in these proteins will leave the drugs target-less. If a patient with such a condition is treated with the drug without testing, no improvement in the HIV related infections would be seen. 

This test should be performed before administration of drugs and planning a treatment for the affected individual. Sample accepted for this test is EDTA Plasma. Turn around time is 15 days.

 In our facility, there are five types of drug resistance tests performed:

1. GBL 17 - This test will inform the patient if the drug like protease inhibitors and reverse transcriptase inhibitors will be effective on the patient. 
2. GBL 85 - Checks for resistance against protease inhibitor drugs only.
3. GBL 86 - This test will inform if resistance against reverse transcriptase drugs is present in the affected individual.
4. GBL 87 - Checks for resistance against integrase inhibitor drugs.
5. GBL 89 - This test checks if there is resistance present against all the three drug types- protease inhibitors, reverse transcriptase inhibitors and integrase inhibitors.