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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Rapid Screening of HIV Reverse Transcriptase and Integrase Inhibitors
Published on: April 9, 2014
Integrase Strand Transfer Inhibitors (INSTIs) Resistance Mutations in HIV-1 Infected Turkish Patients
M Sayan1,2, A Gündüz3, G Ersöz4
1a Faculty of Medicine, Clinical Laboratory, PCR Unit , University of Kocaeli , Kocaeli , Turkey.
Objectives:
Integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) is a new class of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs designed to block the action of the integrase viral enzyme, which is responsible for insertation of the HIV-1 genome into the host DNA. The aim of this study was to evaluate for the first time INSTI resistance mutations in Turkish patients.
Methods:
This study was conducted in Turkey, between April 2013 and April 2015 using 169 HIV-1-infected patients (78 ARV naive patients and 91 ARV-experienced patients). Laboratory and clinical characteristics of ARV naive and ARV-experienced patients were as follows: gender (M/F): 71/7 and 80/11, median age: 38 and 38.4; median CD4(+) T-cell: 236 and 216 cells/mm(3), median HIV-1 RNA: 4.95+E5 and 1.08E+6 copies/ml. Population-based seqeunces of the reverse transcriptase, protease, and integrase domains of the HIV-1 pol gene were used to detect HIV-1 drug resistance mutations.
Result:
INSTI resistance mutations were not found in recently diagnosed HIV-1-infected patients. However, ARV-experienced patients had major resistance mutations associated with raltegravir and elvitegravir; the following results were generated:F121Y, Y143R, Q148R and E157Q (6/91 - 6.6%).
Conclusions:
The prevalence of INSTI resistant mutations in ART-experienced patients suggested that resistance testing must be incorporated as an integral part of HIV management with INSTI therapies.
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