HIV-1 Drug Resistance Among Treatment-Naive Transgenders from India.
Swarali N KurleSudarshan KandaswamiSharda GadheAjit PatilRohit SarkarSonal MehtaRaman GangakhedkarViswanathan ArumugamUmesh ChawlaPublished in: AIDS research and human retroviruses (2021)
Transgenders (TGs) are highly affected by HIV with high prevalence of 3.14% in India. Since 2017, targeted preventive efforts have been initiated by the government and HIV-infected TGs are being provided the antiretroviral (ART) treatment. Information on the primary HIV drug resistance is crucial for appropriate treatment selection to curb further spread of HIV in this population. In this study, we analyzed HIV-1 pol gene sequences from 36 TGs for presence of drug resistance mutations. To our knowledge, this first study from India reports high-level primary drug resistance (13.8%) among the TG population. Mutations M184V, A98G, K103N, G190A, and Y318F associated with resistance to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors were observed. All pol gene sequences revealed HIV-1 subtype C in all study TG. High-level HIV-1 drug resistance warrant nationwide larger studies on TGs to understand the level of primary ART drug resistance among this population.
Keyphrases
- hiv infected
- antiretroviral therapy
- hiv positive
- human immunodeficiency virus
- hiv aids
- hiv testing
- hiv infected patients
- hepatitis c virus
- men who have sex with men
- south africa
- healthcare
- gene expression
- transcription factor
- genetic diversity
- quality improvement
- drug induced
- social media
- replacement therapy
- genome wide identification