This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bagnarelli, P. Articles by Clementi, M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bagnarelli, P. Articles by Clementi, M.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 01 1995, 16-23, Vol 33, No. 1
Copyright © 1995 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Quantitative molecular monitoring of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 activity during therapy with specific antiretroviral compounds

P Bagnarelli, S Menzo, A Valenza, S Paolucci, S Petroni, G Scalise, R Sampaolesi, A Manzin, PE Varaldo and M Clementi
Institute of Microbiology, University of Ancona, Italy.

Methods for the absolute quantitation of nucleic acids present in small amounts in biological samples (competitive PCR and competitive reverse transcription PCR) were applied to the direct monitoring of specific anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) therapy. With these techniques, different parameters of HIV-1 activity (including genomic RNA copy numbers in plasma, proviral and late transcript copy numbers in peripheral blood lymphocytes, and mean transcriptional activity per each HIV-1 provirus) were monitored during therapy with azidothymidine or ddI. In most of these treated patients, a direct response to the antiretroviral compounds employed was detected during the first few weeks of treatment, as documented by a fast decrease of all molecular indexes of HIV-1 activity. However, residual viral replication (albeit at minimal levels) was documented during therapy in all subjects monitored in this study. In a minority of the patients under study (3 of 12), the drug-dependent viral inhibition was maintained throughout the observation time (213 to 791 days), but in 9 patients a rebound in viremia level was detected during therapy with competitive reverse transcription PCR. Sequencing analysis of a portion of the HIV-1 gene pol from cell-free virions showed that circulating viral variants bearing at least two mutations compatible with azidothymidine or ddI resistance were detectable in the patients who exhibited a rebound in cell-free HIV-1 genomic RNA copy numbers in plasma but not in one patient who maintained (for 455 days) lowered levels of viral load during ddI treatment.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Zanchetta, N., Nardi, G., Tocalli, L., Drago, L., Bossi, C., Pulvirenti, F. R., Galli, C., Gismondo, M. R. (2000). Evaluation of the Abbott LCx HIV-1 RNA Quantitative, a New Assay for Quantitative Determination of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 RNA. J. Clin. Microbiol. 38: 3882-3886 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Clementi, M. (2000). Quantitative Molecular Analysis of Virus Expression and Replication. J. Clin. Microbiol. 38: 2030-2036 [Full Text]  
• Ginocchio, C. C., Tetali, S., Washburn, D., Zhang, F., Kaplan, M. H. (1999). Comparison of Levels of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 RNA in Plasma as Measured by the NucliSens Nucleic Acid Sequence-Based Amplification and Quantiplex Branched-DNA Assays. J. Clin. Microbiol. 37: 1210-1212 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Zazzi, M., Romano, L., Catucci, M., Venturi, G., De Milito, A., Valensin, P. E. (1999). Clinical Evaluation of an In-House Reverse Transcription-Competitive PCR for Quantitation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 RNA in Plasma. J. Clin. Microbiol. 37: 333-338 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Goldschmidt, P. L., Devillechabrolle, A., Ait-Arkoub, Z., Aubin, J.-T. (1998). Comparison of an Amplified Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay with Procedures Based on Molecular Biology for Assessing Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Viral Load. CVI 5: 513-518 [Abstract] [Full Text]