HIV-1 subtype is an independent predictor of reverse transcriptase mutation k65r in HIV-1 patients treated with combination antiretroviral therapy including tenofovir

• Authors: Abecasis AB, Camacho RJ, Clotet B, De Luca A, Grossman Z, Schülter E, Snoeck J, Sönnerborg A, Struck D, Theys K, Torti C, Vandamme AM, Vercauteren J, Zazzi M
• Journal: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
• Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23183438

Subtype-dependent selection of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase resistance mutation K65R was previously observed in cell culture and small clinical investigations. We compared K65R prevalence across subtypes A, B, C, F, G, and CRF02_AG separately in a cohort of 3,076 patients on combination therapy including tenofovir.

K65R selection was significantly higher in HIV-1 subtype C. This could not be explained by clinical and demographic factors in multivariate analysis, suggesting subtype sequence-specific K65R pathways.