Unraveling Cytomegalovirus Drug Resistance in Transplant Patients by Targeting Deep Sequencing.

ABSTRACT: Drug-resistant cytomegalovirus (CMV) poses a major clinical challenge in transplant recipients, leading to treatment failure and increased morbidity. This study applied a next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach to identify antiviral resistance mutations (ARMs) in 71 samples from 68 CMV-positive patients who had undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) or solid organ transplantation (SOT) between 2018 and 2024. A custom nested-PCR protocol targeting six CMV genes (UL27, UL51, UL54, UL56, UL89, and UL97) was developed for enrichment prior to NGS. ARMs were detected in 23% of patients without clinical suspicion of resistance and in 62% of those with suspected resistance, most frequently affecting UL97. The most common UL97 mutations were A594V (24.4%), C603W (20.0%), and L59

SUBMITTER: Aleman S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12746535 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature