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Updated: Mar 8, 2026

An Affordable HIV-1 Drug Resistance Monitoring Method for Resource Limited Settings
Published on: March 30, 2014
Tackling the problem of HIV drug resistance
Irene T Weber1, Robert W Harrison2
1Department of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Abstract:
The virally-encoded HIV-1 protease is an effective target for antiviral drugs, however, treatment for HIV infections is limited by the prevalence of drug resistant viral mutants. In this review, we describe our three-pronged approach to analyze and combat drug resistance. Understanding the molecular basis for resistance due to protease inhibitors is a key initial step in this approach. This knowledge is being employed for the design of new, improved inhibitors with high affinity for resistant mutants as well as wild type enzyme. In parallel with experimental studies of diverse mutants and inhibitory compounds, we are developing efficient algorithms to predict drug resistance phenotype from genotype data. This approach has important practical applications in the clinic where genotyping is recommended for individuals with new infections.
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