Thai doctors develop new test kit for HIV drug resistance testing
TNA 2011-03-02
BANGKOK, March 2 - Thai doctors and medical researchers have developed a test kit to measure HIV drug resistance assaying with high sensitivity, an invention which will help reduce risks of allergic reactions and lower medical treatment costs of HIV patients.
Assoc Prof Dr Wasun Chantratita, chief of virology at Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, together with Thailand Center of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS) have developed high sensitivity (Deep Sequencing) test kit for HIV drug resistance testing, a method more efficient in detecting the drug-resistant virus than the previous Sanger sequencing method.
Dr Wasun explained the analysis was carried out on a Next Generation Sequencer platform, which can increase the ability to detect HIV-1 drug-resistant virus some 100-200 times higher than the original Sanger sequencing method. The new assay can detect HIV-1 drug resistant viruses in mixtures of wild type viruses which are susceptible to antiretroviral drugs in the ratio 1 to 500 or 1 per 1000.
The experiment came as the National Health Security Office reported the number of Thais infected with HIV-1 drug resistant viruses has increased significantly. One reason is that the use of anti-retroviral drugs among people infected with HIV increases. The new test kit is expected to improve effectiveness in administering drugs to individual HIV patients, reduce risks of allergic reactions and lower public health expenditures.
Dr Wasun asserted being able to detect HIV-1 drug resistant viruses in small amounts can be highly beneficial in HIV-1 therapy because doctors will be able to change the type of drugs to the patients faster. The sooner, the better, otherwise, the virus will resist all drug regimens. (MCOT online news)
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