Transmitted antiretroviral drug resistance and thumb subdomain polymorphisms among newly HIV-1 diagnosed patients infected with CRF01_AE and CRF07_BC virus in Guangdong Province, China.

The aim of this study was to elucidate the prevalence of transmitted drug-resistant (TDR) mutations and reverse transcriptase (RT) thumb subdomain polymorphisms in CRF01_AE and CRF07_BC virus among newly diagnosed, therapy-naive HIV-1 patients in Guangdong Province, China. One hundred and sixty four samples were collected in Guangzhou Eighth People's Hospital. Entire protease gene and 300 codons of the entry part of the reverse transcriptase were amplified and sequenced. Furthermore, genotypic drug resistance, polymorphisms and phylogenetic of them were analyzed. According eligibility criteria, seven samples were excluded, and 119 of 157(75.8%) samples (84 CRF01_AE and 35 CRF07_BC) were amplified and sequenced successfully. The whole prevalence of TDR identified in present study was 6.7% [8/119, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.8-11.6%]. Three major resistance mutations: K103N, M184V and Y188L, each of which caused more than one drug resistance were appeared only in two patients, the prevalence [1.7 % (2/119)] was relatively low. Until now, this is the first observation on the five newly identified accessory mutations: V35T, K43E, V60I, K122E and E203D and seven thumb subdomain polymorphisms: A272P, K277R, K281R, T286A, E291D, V292I and I293V in RT gene in China. The findings would provide useful information for guidance with antiretroviral therapy (ART) policy in China where therapeutic options still are limited.