Study of HIV Resistance Mutations Against Antiretrovirals using Bioinformatics Tools

Antiretroviral drugs to HIV-1 (ARV) are divided into classes: Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs); Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs); Protease Inhibitors (PIs); Integrase Inhibitors (INIs); fusion inhibitors and entry Inhibitors. The occurrence of mutations developing resistance to antiretroviral drugs used in HIV treatment take place in a considerable proportion and has accumulated over its long period of therapy.

This study aimed to identify resistance mutations to antiretrovirals used in the treatment of HIV-1 in strains isolated from Brazilian territory deposited at Genbank, as well as to relate to the clinical significance and mechanism of action.

Elucidation of these mutations was by comparative method of peptide sequence resulting from genes encoding therapeutic targets in HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) of the strains with a reference sequence through bioinformatic genetic information manipulation techniques.

Of the 399 sequences analyzed, 121 (30.3%) had some type of mutations associated with resistance to some class of antiretroviral drug. Resistance to NNRTIs was the most prevalent, detected in 77 (63.6%) of the 121 mutated sequences, compared to NRTIs and PIs, whose resistance was detected in 60 (49.6%) and 21 (17.3%), respectively, and to INIs, only 1 (0.8%) sample showed associated resistance mutation.

Resistance to HIV ARV was detected at a considerable rate of 30.3%, showing some concerns about the percentage of viral strains that escape the established therapeutic regimen and that circulate currently in Brazil. The non-use of NNRTIs in Brazil is justified by the emergence of resistance mutations. The low prevalence of mutations against INIs is because drugs in this class have a high genetic barrier.