The emergence of drug resistant HIV variants and novel anti-retroviral therapy
Paydary, K.; Khaghani, P.; Emamzadeh-Fard, S.; Alinaghi, S.A.S.; Baesi, K.
Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine 3(7): 515-522
2013
ISSN/ISBN: 2221-1691 PMID: 23835806 DOI: 10.1016/s2221-1691(13)60106-9Document Number: 578717
After its identification in 1980s, HIV has infected more than 30 million people worldwide. In the era of highly active anti-retroviral therapy, anti-retroviral drug resistance results from insufficient anti-retroviral pressure, which may lead to treatment failure. Preliminary studies support the idea that anti-retroviral drug resistance has evolved largely as a result of low-adherence of patients to therapy and extensive use of anti-retroviral drugs in the developed world; however, a highly heterogeneous horde of viral quasi-species are currently circulating in developing nations. Thus, the prioritizing of strategies adopted in such two worlds should be quite different considering the varying anti-retroviral drug resistance prevalence. In this article, we explore differences in anti-retroviral drug resistance patterns between developed and developing countries, as they represent two distinct ecological niches of HIV from an evolutionary standpoint.