Compensatory mutations at the HIV cleavage sites p7/p1 and p1/p6-gag in therapy-naive and therapy-experienced patients.

Background: Mutations in the genome of HIV conferring drug resistance are a major reason for the failure of antiretroviral therapy, but they often compromise viral fitness. Protease (PR) cleavage site (CS) mutations could compensate for impaired replication capacity of drug-resistant viruses.

Patients And Methods: We analysed the cleavage sites p1/p7 and p1/p6-gag of 500 HIV-1 subtype B infected patients. The collective consists of 275 therapy-naive and 225 therapy-experienced patients with at least one primary PR mutation, from whom eight underwent therapy-interruption in different clinical settings.

Results: Multiple mutations within the CS p7/p1 and p1/p6-gag accumulated in therapy-experienced isolates (p7/p1: A431V-K436R-I437V and p1/p6-gag: L449F/V-P452S-P453L/A). Further rare CS mutations were totally absent in therapy-naive viruses. Sixty percent of all therapy-experienced viruses exhibited at least one therapy-associated CS mutation, but so did 10% of therapy-naive viruses. The analysis of CS and PR mutations in therapy-experienced viruses revealed several positive correlations--A431V with L24I-M46I/L-I54V-V82A; I437V with I54V-V82F/T/S; L449V with I54M/L/S/T/A; and L449F/R452S/P453L: with D30N-I84V--whereas P453L and V82A were negatively correlated. Mutagenetic trees constructed form this cross-sectional data showed an ordered accumulation of the most prominent CS mutations along two pathways L90M-I84V-P453L and I54-V82-A431V followed by either M46L or L24I. Furthermore, eight viruses with at least one therapy-associated mutation at each CS displayed an outstanding maintenance of major PR mutations during therapy interruption.

Conclusions: These findings emphasize the relevance of CS mutations in the evolution of HIV resistance to PR inhibitors. Therefore, therapy-associated CS mutations should be considered in HIV resistance tests to estimate viral fitness in different clinical settings.