HIV reverse transcriptase gene mutations in anti‑retroviral treatment naïve rural people living with HIV/AIDS.

This study is designed to find out the mutational variations of reverse transcriptase (RT) gene of HIV, after the traditional drug usage among anti‑retroviral therapy naïve rural people living with HIV/AIDS. HIV Reactive patients, who were exposed for indigenous medicines such as Siddha, Ayurveda etc., for a minimum period of 6 months were taken for this study. Among 40 patients, two samples (5.55%) demonstrated high‑level mutational resistance variations for nucleoside RT inhibitor (NRTI) and non‑NRTI. The predominant polymorphisms detected were K122E (91.7%), V60I (91.7%), V35T (89%), Q207E (89%), D177E (89%), T200A (86.1%), S48T (83.33%), K173A (80.6%).