Prevalence of Zidovudine Resistant Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 in Zidovudine-naive Patients

Kim, Nam Joong; Choi, Eun Suk; Kim, Eui Seok; Lee, Dae Ho; Choe, Young Joo; Bang, Ji Hwan; Oh, Myoung don; Choe, Kang Won

Abstract

BACKGROUD: Drug resistant virus has been seen with all effective antiretroviral drugs in current practice. The isolation of resistant virus from subjects is associated with more rapid clinical outcome. The presence of resistance-conferring mutations in a patient in whom therapy is failing indicates that other antiretroviral drugs should be considered. So, the identification of drug resistant Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1) mutations is of increasing importance. Zidovudine monotherapy for HIV-1 infection has been widely used in Korea since 1990. So, the prevalence of zidovudine resistant virus has been expected to be high. The purpose of the present study is to determine the prevalence of zidovudine resistant HIV-1 among zidovudine-naive Korean patients. METHODS: We tested drug susceptibility of HIV-1 isolated from 19 zidovudine-naive Korean patients. We amplified a portion of gene reverse transcriptase of HIV-1 by RT nested PCR method. The susceptibility of HIV-1 to zidovudine was determined by sequencing the DNA base pairs of gene reverse transciptase. RESULTS: Two (10.5%) of 19 HIV-1 isolates from zidovudine naive patients showed resistance conferring mutations to zidovudine. Two (2.1%) of 95 codons analysed from zidovudine naive patients showed mutations conferring resistance to zidovudine. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of zidovudine resistant HIV-1 was 10.5% among zidovudine-naive Korean patients.