Gol Mohammadi, R, Tabaraei, A, Abbasi, A, Khademi, N, Mahdavian, B, Javid, N, Kaleji, H, Kamasi,a, Bazoori, M, Moradi, A,
Volume 9, Issue 1 (March, April[PERSIAN] 2015)
Abstract
Abstract
Background and Objective: Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) can effectively prevent the progression of HIV-1 replication and increase life expectancy. There are numerous causes of treatment failure and the leading one is drug resistance. Thus, we aimed to determine the HIV RT gene drug resistance mutations in patients treated with antiretroviral medications.
Material and Methods: In this cross - sectional study, venous blood was taken from 130 HIV-positive patients treated with antiretroviral medications. In order to determine drug resistance mutations, RT-PCR and PCR steps were performed using RT gene specific primers. Subtypes and mutations in the virus genome were determined using the Stanford HIV drug resistance sequence database.
Results: In 122 treating patients, most of the major mutations were associated with nucleoside and non-nucleoside drugs. subtype A in 66.4%, subtype D in 26.2% and subtype B in 7.4% of the participants were reported. They were resistant to Nucleoside RT Inhibitor drugs (23.7%) and Non-Nucleoside RT Inhibitor drugs(30.3%). The highest were related to Nevirapine (21.3%) and Efavirenz (19.7%) and the lowest to both Tenofovir and Zidovudine (91.5%).
Conclusion: The use of two nucleoside RT inhibitor drugs combined with one protease inhibitor drug could be effective in the treatment of HAART.
Key words: HIV, Nucleoside RT Inhibitor, Non- Nucleoside RT Inhibitor
Hasan Kaleji, Alijan Tabaraei, Abdollah Abbasi, Naemeh Javeed , Masoud Bazoori , Reza Golmohamadi , Abdolvahab Moradi,
Volume 9, Issue 5 (Nov,Dec-2015 2015)
Abstract
Abstract
Background and Objective: Various cellular factors affect the process of HIV activity. One of these cellular factors are structures known as microRN that are expected to be involved in controlling HIV replication and infectivity. The expression of one or a set of them may represent the patient's clinical conditions. In this study, the expression of miR-29a and miR-29b involved in regulating viral genes’ expression was evaluated in three HIV-positive groups and a healthy control group. Later, the expression level of these microRNAs was compared between the cases and controls.
Methods: Total RNA extraction was performed on the collected samples using RNx-plus kit and then the microRNA expression levels were evaluated using Relative Real-time PCR. The obtained data was entered into SPSS 22 and Graphpad softwares and analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and Man-Whitney tests. P-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistical significance level.
Results: The expression level of miR-29a was reduced in patients under treatment and drug-resistant patients ( P ≤ 0.05) . All three HIV-positive groups including people without drug treatment, patients under treatment and drug-resistant patients showed reduced miR-29b expression level compared to control group (P ≤ 0.05).
Conclusion: the decreased expression of miR-29a and miR-29b in patients under treatment and drug-resistant patients indicates an increased viral replication and reduced CD4 cell count. It may be possible to predict the progression of the disease by miRNA measurement or control viral replication using these mir-RNAs that requires further studies.
Keywords: HIV, expression, mir-29a, mir-29b.
