Comparative performance of the Biocentric Generic Viral Load, Roche CAP/CTM v1.5, Roche CAP/CTM v2.0 and m2000 Abbott
V Avettand-Fénoël1, A Mélard1, M Gueudin2
1Université Paris Descartes, EA 7327, Sorbonne Paris Cité, AP-HP, Laboratoire de Virologie, Hôpital Necker, Paris, France.
Background:
HIV-1 viral load testing is now recommended by the World Health Organization for every patient receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART).
Objectives:
The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of commercial assays for their ability to quantify HIV-1 strains currently circulating in France.
Study Design:
The performances of the Generic HIV-RNA assay from Biocentric were compared to those of the Roche CAP/CTM v1.5, Roche CAP/CTM v2.0 and Abbott m2000 RealTime HIV-1 assays. A total of 1885 HIV-1 plasma samples were tested, including 684 samples from patients included in the ANRS-Primo Cohort.
Results:
We found a good concordance of quantification between the Roche v2.0 and the Biocentric assays, both of which were superior to the Roche v1.5 assay. We show moderate agreement between techniques; however, CRF02_AG strains and undetermined viruses were underestimated when quantified with the Roche CAP/CTM v2.0. In contrast, a comparison of the Biocentric and Abbott assay results showed strong agreement between assays, indicating that both are well suited for quantification of CRF02_AG strains. Moreover, a 2% underestimation of the B subtypes was observed with the Biocentric assay.
Conclusions:
These results have implications for viral load monitoring in Western Africa, where CRF02_AG strains are highly prevalent. Closer epidemiological surveillance and evaluation of commercial assays are still necessary to better evaluate the impact of the genetic evolution of circulating viruses on HIV-RNA quantification in the regions most affected by the HIV-1 epidemic.
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