title: Detection of a new 3-base pair insertion mutation in the protease gene of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
abstract: To investigate a new insertion mutation in the protease (PR) gene of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in a patient extensively pretreated with antiretroviral drugs, genotypic analyses of plasma-derived viruses were performed by sequencing segments of 1302 nucleotides in the pol gene of HIV-1. Despite optimal compliance to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) the patient showed poor virological success. Nucleotide sequences of retrospective available plasma samples exhibited a previously unknown 3-bp insertion mutation, corresponding to a leucine, between codons 31 and 32 of the PR gene. This kind of mutation appears to be very rare and it does not seem to be associated with any phenotypic resistance profile known so far. It should be noted that the insert mutation, once it appeared, did not revert to the wild-type variant, suggesting that it seems to correspond to a better fitness of the variant viruses.
authors.affiliation: Centro di Riferimento Regionale per la Diagnosi Sierologica e Virologica dell'AIDS, Dipartimento di Igiene e Microbiologia, Università degli Studi di Palermo, I-90127 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tramuto
authors.forename: Filippa
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bonura
authors.forename: Salvatrice
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mancuso
authors.forename: Nino
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vitale
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D020029:Base Pairing / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D003062:Codon; D005260:Female; D015684:Gene Products, pol / Q000235:genetics; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000821:virology; D016333:HIV Protease / Q000235:genetics*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D015684:Gene Products, pol; D016333:HIV Protease