Emergence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Drug Resistance During the 3-Month World Health Organization-Recommended Enhanced Adherence Counseling Period in the CART-1 Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: In resource-limited settings, the World Health Organization recommends enhanced adherence counseling (EAC) for individuals with an unsuppressed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 viral load (VL) and to remeasure VL after 3 months to avoid unnecessary regimen switches. In cases in which this follow-up VL remains unsuppressed, a regimen switch is indicated. We aimed to assess levels of HIV-1 drug resistance before and after the EAC period among people with ongoing viremia (≥80 c/mL) after EAC.

Methods: We included adult participants of the CART-1 cohort study conducted in Lesotho who had a VL ≥80 c/mL after EAC. Paired plasma samples (before and after EAC) were analyzed by next-generation sequencing. We assessed the prevalence of resistance-associated mutations and viral susceptibility scores to each participant's antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen (range, 0-3; 3 indicates complete susceptibility).

Results: Among 93 participants taking nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor-based ART with an initial VL ≥1000 copies/mL who received a follow-up VL test after EAC, 76 still had a VL ≥80 copies/mL after EAC, and paired samples were available for 57 of 76. The number of individuals without full susceptibility to any drug in their regimen increased from 31 of 57 (54.4%) before to 36 of 57 (63.2%) after EAC. Median susceptibility scores dropped from 0.5 (interquartile range [IQR] = 0.25-) to 0.25 (IQR = 0.25-1) during the EAC period (P = .16).

Conclusions: Despite high levels of resistance before EAC, we observed a slight decline in susceptibility scores after EAC. The risk of further accumulation of resistance during EAC has to be balanced against the benefit of avoiding unnecessary switches in those with spontaneous resuppression after EAC.

Keywords: HIV; drug resistance; genotypic resistance testing; sub-Saharan Africa.

Figure 1.

Fraction of participants with respective number of genomic positions with at least 1 major resistance-associated mutation (RAM) (with a variant frequency >5%) at respective time point¹. ¹ Observed major RAMs: M41L, A62V, K65R, D67N, K70E, K70R, V75I, F77L, Y115F, M184V, M184I, L210W, T215Y, T215F, K219Q, K219E, L100I, K101P, K101E, K103N, K103S, V106M, V108I, E138A, E138G, E138Q, Y181C, Y188C, Y188L, Y188H, V179L, G190A, G190S, H221Y, P225H, M230L, M230I, D30N. EAC, enhanced adherence counseling; NNRTI, nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor; NRTI, nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor.

Figure 2.

Susceptibility scores before and after enhanced adherence counseling ([EAC] N = 57). Gray lines connect samples of the same individual. Box plots indicate the median (bold horizontal line) and the interquartile range (dashed horizontal line). The P value was derived using sign test.