HIV-1 protease inhibitor drug resistance in Kenyan antiretroviral treatment-naive and-experienced injection drug users and non-drug users

Abstract

Background Although injection drug use drives antiretroviral drug resistance, the prevalence of protease inhibitor (PI) resistance among Kenyan IDUs remains undetermined. We, therefore, explored PI resistance mutations and their association with viral load and CD4+ T cell counts in HIV-1 infected IDUs (ART-naive, n= 32; and-experienced, n= 47) and non-drug users (ART-naive, n= 21; and-experienced, n= 32) naive for PI treatment from coastal Kenya. Results Only IDUs harboured major PI resistance mutations consisting of L90M, M46I and D30 N among 3 (6.4%) ART-experienced and 1 (3.1%)-naive individuals. Minor PI mutations including A71T, G48E, G48R, I13V, K20I, K20R, L10I, L10V, L33F, L63P, T74S, V11I, and V32L were detected among the ART-experienced (36.2 vs. 46.9%) and-naive (43.8 vs. 66.7%) IDUs and non-drug users, respectively. All the four IDUs possessing major …