Pretreatment HIV drug resistance predicts accumulation of new mutations in ART-naïve Ugandan children

Quantification of Efavirenz Hydroxymetabolites in Human Plasma Using LC-HRMS/MS

BACKGROUND

Efavirenz (EFV) is a drug used to treat HIV. Low plasma concentrations of EFV result in suboptimal viral suppression, whereas high concentrations can cause adverse neuropsychiatric side reactions. Some studies have identified a correlation between the plasma concentrations of EFV metabolites and neurotoxicity. To our knowledge, no studies have investigated the metabolism of EFV in young children and its effect on treatment outcomes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop and validate a method for quantifying EFV and its metabolites in human plasma derived from children.

METHODS

Sample preparation was performed using protein precipitation of 100 µL plasma. Thereafter, an aliquot of the supernatant was used to quantify EFV, 7-hydroxyefavirenz (7-OH-EFV), 8-hydroxyefavirenz (8-OH-EFV), and a newly discovered metabolite ("EFAdeg") associated with 8-OH-EFV. A second aliquot of the supernatant was hydrolyzed using β-glucuronidase/arylsulfatase and used with the first aliquot to quantify phase II metabolites. The analyses were performed using a Dionex Ultimate 3000RS LC-system coupled with a Q Exactive Orbitrap mass spectrometer.

RESULTS

The method has a measuring range of 100-50,000 ng/mL (EFV, 8-OH-EFV), 125-25,000 ng/mL (7-OH-EFV), and 200-10,000 ng/mL ("EFAdeg"). All criteria of the European Medicines Agency guidelines regarding precision, accuracy, and selectivity were met. Of note, carryover must be considered for 8-OH-EFV. Overall, the validated method was successfully applied to plasma samples obtained from children and confirmed the presence of the newly discovered metabolite, "EFAdeg."

CONCLUSIONS

An LC-HRMS/MS method for the quantification of EFV and its phase I and II metabolites was developed and validated. This method is suitable for analyzing plasma samples from children. Furthermore, studies using this method identified an additional metabolite that may influence the concentration of 8-OH-EFV in patient samples.

The association between HIV pretreatment drug resistance and virological outcomes in children and adults in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION

Pretreatment drug resistance (PDR) could occur in antiretroviral treatment (ART) naïve individuals, those previously exposed to ART, or individuals re-initiating ARV after a long period of interruption. Few studies have shown its association with virological outcomes, although inconsistent. The objective of this review was to provide a synthesis of the association between PDR and virological outcomes (virological failure or suppression).

METHODS

This report is presented following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The method was subdivided into three main phases: record identification, screening, and report inclusion. Record identification consisted of an initial search with search term "HIV pretreatment drug resistance". Another search was done using terms "Pretreatment drug resistance OR pre-treatment drug resistance OR Pretreatment drug resist* OR pre-treatment drug resist* OR pretreatment antiretroviral resistance OR pretreatment medic* OR pretreatment medic* resist*" and a list of all the countries in sub-Saharan Africa. After the electronic search, studies were screened from full list based on their title and abstract and then full articles retrieved and studies were assessed based on set criteria. Inclusion criteria involved observational studies that report the association between PDR and virological failure. Data from trials that reported the association were also included. Published articles like modelling studies and reviews, and studies with data that had been previously included in the review were excluded. The Mantel Haenszel method with odds ratios was used for synthesis (meta-analyses) with the weights of each study which depends on the number of events and totals.

RESULTS

A total of 733 records(studies) were obtained from all database search of which 74 reported on PDR, virological outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Out of the 74 articles, 11 were excluded and 26 did not explicitly report data needed, and 5 did not meet the inclusion criteria. Of the remaining 32 studies, 19 studies that had complete data on the number of participants with PDR and no PDR according to virological failure (VF) were included in the metanalyses. The pooled results from eleven (13) of these studies showed those with PDR had higher odds of virological failure compared to those without PDR OR 3.64[95% CI 2.93, 4.52]. The result was similar when stratified in adults and in children. In six (6) studies that had Virological suppression (VS) as outcome, there was a reduction in the odds of VS in those with PDR compared to those without PDR, OR 0.42 (95% CI 0.30, 0.58).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this systematic review indicates that PDR increases the risk of virological failure in sub-Saharan Africa. The risk could be reduced by PDR monitoring for NNRTIs and INSTIs.

HIV Drug Resistance Patterns and Characteristics Associated with Clinically Significant Drug Resistance among Children with Virologic Failure on Antiretroviral Treatment in Kenya: Findings from the Opt4Kids Randomized Controlled Trial

Increasing HIV drug resistance (DR) among children with HIV (CHIV) on antiretroviral treatment (ART) is concerning. CHIV ages 1-14 years enrolled from March 2019 to December 2020 from five facilities in Kisumu County, Kenya, were included. Children were randomized 1:1 to control (standard-of-care) or intervention (point-of-care viral load (POC VL) testing every three months with targeted genotypic drug resistance testing (DRT) for virologic failure (VF) (≥1000 copies/mL)). A multidisciplinary committee reviewed CHIV with DRT results and offered treatment recommendations. We describe DR mutations and present logistic regression models to identify factors associated with clinically significant DR. We enrolled 704 children in the study; the median age was 9 years (interquartile range (IQR) 7, 12), 344 (49%) were female, and the median time on ART was 5 years (IQR 3, 8). During the study period, 106 (15%) children had DRT results (84 intervention and 22 control). DRT detected mutations associated with DR in all participants tested, with 93 (88%) having major mutations, including 51 (54%) with dual-class resistance. A history of VF in the prior 2 years (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 11.1; 95% confidence interval (CI) 6.3, 20.0) and less than 2 years on ART at enrollment (aOR 2.2; 95% CI 1.1, 4.4) were associated with increased odds of major DR. DR is highly prevalent among CHIV on ART with VF in Kenya. Factors associated with drug resistance may be used to determine which children should be prioritized for DRT.

Once-daily dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy in infants and children living with HIV from age 4 weeks: results from the below 14 kg cohort in the randomised ODYSSEY trial

BACKGROUND

Young children living with HIV have few treatment options. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) in children weighing between 3 kg and less than 14 kg.

METHODS

ODYSSEY is an open-label, randomised, non-inferiority trial (10% margin) comparing dolutegravir-based ART with standard of care and comprises two cohorts (children weighing ≥14 kg and <14 kg). Children weighing less than 14 kg starting first-line or second-line ART were enrolled in seven HIV treatment centres in South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Randomisation, which was computer generated by the trial statistician, was stratified by first-line or second-line ART and three weight bands. Dispersible 5 mg dolutegravir was dosed according to WHO weight bands. The primary outcome was the Kaplan-Meier estimated proportion of children with virological or clinical failure by 96 weeks, defined as: confirmed viral load of at least 400 copies per mL after week 36; absence of virological suppression by 24 weeks followed by a switch to second-line or third-line ART; all-cause death; or a new or recurrent WHO stage 4 or severe WHO stage 3 event. The primary outcome was assessed by intention to treat in all randomly assigned participants. A primary Bayesian analysis of the difference in the proportion of children meeting the primary outcome between treatment groups incorporated evidence from the higher weight cohort (≥14 kg) in a prior distribution. A frequentist analysis was also done of the lower weight cohort (<14 kg) alone. Safety analyses are presented for all randomly assigned children in this study (<14 kg cohort). ODYSSEY is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02259127.

FINDINGS

Between July 5, 2018, and Aug 26, 2019, 85 children weighing less than 14 kg were randomly assigned to receive dolutegravir (n=42) or standard of care (n=43; 32 [74%] receiving protease inhibitor-based ART). Median age was 1·4 years (IQR 0·6-2·0) and median weight 8·1 kg (5·4-10·0). 72 (85%) children started first-line ART and 13 (15%) started second-line ART. Median follow-up was 124 weeks (112-137). By 96 weeks, treatment failure occurred in 12 children in the dolutegravir group (Kaplan-Meier estimated proportion 31%) versus 21 (48%) in the standard-of-care group. The Bayesian estimated difference in treatment failure (dolutegravir minus standard of care) was -10% (95% CI -19% to -2%; p=0·020), demonstrating superiority of dolutegravir. The frequentist estimated difference was -18% (-36% to 2%; p=0·057). 15 serious adverse events were reported in 11 (26%) children in the dolutegravir group, including two deaths, and 19 were reported in 11 (26%) children in the standard-of-care group, including four deaths (hazard ratio [HR] 1·08 [95% CI 0·47-2·49]; p=0·86). 36 adverse events of grade 3 or higher were reported in 19 (45%) children in the dolutegravir group, versus 34 events in 21 (49%) children in the standard-of-care group (HR 0·93 [0·50-1·74]; p=0·83). No events were considered related to dolutegravir.

INTERPRETATION

Dolutegravir-based ART was superior to standard of care (mainly protease inhibitor-based) with a lower risk of treatment failure in infants and young children, providing support for global dispersible dolutegravir roll-out for younger children and allowing alignment of adult and paediatric treatment.

FUNDING

Paediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS Foundation, ViiV Healthcare, UK Medical Research Council.

Establishment and application of a method of tagged-amplicon deep sequencing for low-abundance drug resistance in HIV-1

In the latest HIV-1 global drug resistance report released by WHO, countries are advised to strengthen pre-treatment monitoring of drug resistance in AIDS patients. In this study, we established an NGS-based segmented amplification HIV-1 drug resistance mutation detection method. The pol region of HIV-1 was divided into three short fragments for NGS. The entire amplification and sequencing panel were more cost-effective and batched by using the barcode sequence corresponding to the sample. Each parameter was evaluated using samples with known resistance variants frequencies. The nucleotide sequence error rate, amino acid error rate, and noise value of the NGS-based segmented amplification method were both less than 1%. When the threshold was 2%, the consensus sequences of the HIV-1 NL4-3 strain were completely consistent with the Sanger sequences. This method can detect the minimum viral load of the sample at 10² copies/ml, and the input frequency and detection frequency of HIV-1 resistance mutations within the range of 1%–100% had good conformity (R² = 0.9963; R² = 0.9955). This method had no non-specific amplification for Hepatitis B and C. Under the 2% threshold, the incidence of surveillance drug resistance mutations in ART-naive HIV-infected patients was 20.69%, among which NRTIs class resistance mutations were mainly.

Molecular Characterization of the pol Gene of Vertically Transmitted HIV-1 Strains in Children with Virological Failure

HIV-1 pol gene sequences were analyzed from 77 HIV-1 positive children infected perinatally and exhibiting virological failure (VF). Viral subtyping, phylogenetic analysis, and genotypic drug resistance analysis were carried out on samples collected before start of anti retroviral treatment (ART) (baseline, BL), and at 12 months post-ART initiation (M12). Subtype C was found to be most predominant, seen in 75 of the 77 (97.4%) children. The level of pretreatment drug resistance (PDR) was 14% among these children. At BL, K103N (5), E138A/G (4), and M184V (3) were the most common mutations. At M12 the prevalence of any resistance-associated mutation (RAM) (acquired drug resistance/ADR) was 81.8% (63/77). Dual class resistance mutations were seen in 64% (49/77) of children. M184V/I, K103N/S, and Y181C were the most commonly occurring mutations, seen in 76%, 51%, and 36% children. RAMs to the second-generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI), etravirine (ETR) and rilpivirine (RPV), were seen in 40.2% (31/77) and 48.05% (37/77) of the children, respectively. Our findings reveal similar prevalence rates of PDR and ADR in children with VF as reported in other studies. Occurrence of ETR and RPV resistance associated mutations (RAMs) is of concern and highlights the need for timely switch of regimens guided by genotypic resistance testing in perinatally infected children from India.