Survey of Antiretroviral Drug Resistance Pattern Among HIV-Infected Patients with Treatment Failure in Iran

Antiretroviral Therapy is classified in six classes and acquired great achievements in HIV inhibition, but this advantage can be affected by developing drug resistance. The combinations of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs have been proven as effectiveness key to control the progression of AIDS; however, these benefits may be compromised by drug resistancy. Thus, drug-resistance testing has become an important tool to the management of HIV-infected patients. Viral RNA was extracted from the plasma by using the QIAamp? Viral RNA kit (Qiagen, Germany) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. RT-PCR performed with the one-step PCR kit (Qiagen, Germany) and Nested PCR. We used the Taq Polymerase master mix kit (Sinaclone, Iran) to amplify of target gene, then products sequenced and analyzed in Stanford HIV drug resistant database. 25 patients, including 13 (52%) males and 12 (48%) females that all of whom received antiretroviral treatment and data indicated that 19 of 25 patients (76%) had RT mutation that consequently reduce susceptibility to NRTI and NNRTI and 4 patients (16%) had PR mutations. In this study two patients have mutation in L100 combine with K103N and 3% of patients have mutation in T215 that mutation in T215, suggesting that they had likely been infected originally with a mutant virus. The mutation rate in RT gene was 76% which may be due to not adherence to the treatment regimen by the patients may cause drug resistancy.