Publications by authors named "Antonia Bezenchek"

Article Synopsis
  • Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is replacing Sanger sequencing for HIV genotypic drug resistance testing, and this study assessed how consistent different interpretation tools are in a real-world setting.
  • The research involved analyzing NGS results from 11 Italian labs using the AD4SEQ HIV-1 Solution v2 kit and compared interpretations from SmartVir, HyDRA Web, and Stanford HIVdb.
  • Findings indicated that viremia levels and HIV subtypes influence the validity of NGS-GRT, with only mutations present at frequencies over 10% showing reliable agreement among the interpretation tools.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess how many people living with HIV (PLWH) are eligible for a long-acting injectable treatment (CAB+RPV) and compare their characteristics to those who are ineligible.
  • Conducted with 514 participants, the research found that 44.5% were eligible for the CAB+RPV regimen, with eligible individuals generally having fewer treatment backgrounds and being more likely to be on current NNRTIs.
  • The findings suggest that less than half of virologically suppressed PLWH in the cohort qualify for the treatment and that eligible individuals tend to have simpler treatment histories.
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The rise of HIV-1 drug resistance to nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) threatens the long-term success of NNRTI-based therapies. Our study aims to describe the circulation of major resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) for NNRTIs in people living with HIV (PLWH) in Italy from 2000 to 2020. We included 5982 naïves and 28 505 genotypes from 9387 treatment-experienced PLWH from the Antiviral Response Cohort Analysis (ARCA) cohort.

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Despite the wide use of single-tablet regimens (STRs), few real-life data are available regarding the impact of pre-existent drug resistance on virological failure (VF). We aimed to fill this gap by analysing a large cohort of individuals selected from the ARCA database. The impact on VF of pre-existent resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) and cumulative genotypic susceptibility score (cGSS) before STR start was evaluated through survival analysis.

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Rapid start of antiretroviral therapy (ART) pending genotypic resistance test (GRT) has been recently proposed, but the effectiveness of this strategy is still debated. The rate of virological success (VS), defined as HIV-RNA < 50 copies/ml, with and without GRT was compared in drug-naïve individuals enrolled in the Italian ARCA cohort who started ART between 2015 and 2018. 521 individuals started ART: 397 without GRT (pre-GRT group) and 124 following GRT (post-GRT group).

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Long-acting (LA) formulations have been designed to improve the quality of life of people with HIV (PWH) by maintaining virologic suppression. However, clinical trials have shown that patient selection is crucial. In fact, the HIV-1 resistance genotype test and the Body Mass Index of individual patients assume a predominant role in guiding the choice.

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Aim of this study was to assess the predictors of virological failure (VF) among patients living with HIV (PLWHIV) switching from an effective first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen, and to evaluate the emergence of resistance-associated mutations. All adult patients enrolled in the Antiviral Response Cohort Analysis cohort who started ART after 2010, with at least 6 months of virological suppression (VS) before ART switch and with an available genotypic resistance test (GRT) at baseline were included. Thirty-two patients out of the 607 PLWHIV included (5.

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Background: Although eHealth technology makes it possible to improve the management of complex health care systems and follow up on chronic patients, it is not without challenges, thus requiring the development of efficient programs and graphic user interface (GUI) features. Similar information technology tools are crucial, as health care populations are going to have to endure social distancing measures in the forthcoming months and years.

Objective: This study aims to provide adequate and personalized support to complex health care populations by developing a specific web-based mobile app.

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Despite successful antiretroviral therapy (ART), patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can develop multi-class drug resistance (MDR). This retrospective study aimed to explore the prevalence of HIV-1 drug resistance over the past two decades by focusing on HIV-MDR and its predictors. ART-experienced patients with HIV with results from at least one plasma genotypic resistance test (GRT) from 1998 to 2018, from the Antiviral Response Cohort Analysis database, were included in this study.

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Iraq has endured several conflicts and socio-political tensions that have disrupted its public health system. Nowadays, because health data are not collected on a routine basis, the country still lacks proper statistics and, consequently, response plans to meet present and future health needs of its population. An international partnership is developing in the Iraqi Kurdistan a Health Monitoring System with the aim of supporting evidence-based health policy decisions.

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Background: Antiretroviral drug resistance mutations remain a major cause of treatment failure.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of NRTI resistance mutations on virological effectiveness of elvitegravir-containing regimens.

Materials And Methods: We selected treatment-experienced HIV-1-infected patients starting elvitegravir/cobicistat/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (E/C/F/TAF) or elvitegravir/cobicistat/emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (E/C/F/TDF), with at least one protease/reverse transcriptase genotype available before switching and at least one HIV-1 RNA viral load (VL) measurement during follow-up.

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Objectives: This study evaluated the emergence of mutations associated with integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTI) resistance (INSTI-RMs) and the integrase evolution in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infected patients treated with this drug class.

Methods: The emergence of INSTI-RMs and integrase evolution (estimated as genetic distance between integrase sequences under INSTI treatment and before INSTI treatment) were evaluated in 107 INSTI-naïve patients (19 drug-naïve and 88 drug-experienced) with two plasma genotypic resistance tests: one before INSTI treatment and one under INSTI treatment. A logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate factors associated with the integrase evolution under INSTI treatment.

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Motivation: Clinicians, health officials and researchers are interested in the epidemic spread of pathogens in both space and time to support the optimization of intervention measures and public health policies. Large sequence databases of virus sequences provide an interesting opportunity to study this spread through phylogenetic analysis. To infer knowledge from large phylogenetic trees, potentially encompassing tens of thousands of virus strains, an efficient method for data exploration is required.

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