Appraisal of a Simple and Effective RT-qPCR Assay for Evaluating the Reverse Transcriptase Activity in Blood Samples from HIV-1 Patients.

ABSTRACT: Testing HIV-1 RNA in plasma by PCR is universally accepted as the ultimate standard to confirm diagnosis of HIV-1 infection and to monitor viral load in patients under treatment. However, in some cases, this assay could either underestimate or overestimate the replication capacity of a circulating or latent virus. In the present study, we performed the assessment of evaluating the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) activity by means of a new assay for the functional screening of the status of HIV-1 patients. To this purpose, we utilized, for the first time on blood samples, an adapted version of a real-time RT quantitative PCR assay, utilized to evaluate the HIV-1-RT inhibitory activity of compounds. The study analyzed blood samples from 28 HIV-1-infected patients, exhibiting a wide range of

SUBMITTER: Macchi B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7763350 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature