ABSTRACT
Background: Resistance limits the effectiveness of anti-retroviral therapy. In Chile, there is free access to highly active anti-retroviral therapy since 2001, but there is no information about the frequency of mutations associated to drug resistance. Aim: To determine the most common mutations associated to anti-retroviral drug resistance in Chile. Materials and Methods: Retrospective study of 710 genotype analysis coming from 568 patients aged 22 to 70 years (85 percent males) with virological failure. The analysis was performed using a commercially available sequencing kit (Trugene HIV-1 genotypic assay from Bayer S.A). Results: Mean CD4+ cell count and viral load were 154 cells/fil and 228784 RNA copies/ml, respectively. The frequency of resistance to nucleoside RT inhibitors (NRTI), non nucleoside RT inhibitors (NNRTI) and protease inhibitors (PI) was 71 percent, 62 percent and 22 percent, respectively. The most common mutations found were T215Y (46 percent), L10F (44 percent), Ml84V (3896), K103N (35 percent) and M41L (32 percent). Fifty five percent of mutations corresponded to the TAM (thymidine analogue mutations) group. Multiresistance was 47 percent to NNRTI, 7 percent to NRTI, 4 percent to PI and 0.7 percent to all groups. During the four years of the study, there was a significant increase in NNRTI resistance. Conclusions: These data provides important information about the epidemiology of drug resistance mutations and should help to design newHAARTstrategies.