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Roche Diagnostics Deutschland GmbH

454 Sequencing Identifies Early Stage HIV Drug Resistance / Low-level Mutations may have Significant Impact on Clinical Outcomes

Retrospective research study shows that even the lowest levels of resistance mutations could lead to early treatment failure

(PresseBox) (Branford, USA, )
A research study published online this week in the Journal of Infectious Disease reports that HIV resistance mutations present in as little as 1% of the viral population have a significant impact on clinical outcomes. The paper outlines the results of a collaborative study between 454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, and a Yale School of Medicine researcher that used 454 Sequencing Systems to identify previously undetectable drug resistant HIV variants in research samples from an earlier performed clinical trial, called the FIRST Study (1).

The research study, lead by Michael Kozal, M.D. of the Yale University School of Medicine and the VA CT Health Care System, was a blinded-retrospectives analysis of 264 blood samples taken from HIV infected individuals before initiating drug treatment for research purposes. The FIRST Study samples were analyzed using Ultra-Deep Sequencing with the Genome Sequencer FLX System, a platform ideally suited for the sensitive detection of low-frequency mutations. Surprisingly, results showed that the fraction of patients harboring resistance variants was twice as high as previously thought. The second question answered by the study was whether or not the low-level mutations undetected with current methods may affect patient outcome. Remarkably, drug resistance levels as low as 1% were found which could lead to early antiretroviral treatment failure with statistical significance.

"Current technology available to clinicians is limited to detecting resistance mutations that are present at levels of approximately 20% or greater in the circulating viral population in a patient. Thus, the current test used in the clinic may miss many low-level resistant HIV strains which can grow rapidly under drug selection pressure and lead to therapy failure. "This retrospective research study shows that even resistance mutations present at the 1% level can lead to premature failure of therapy," explained Michael Kozal, M.D., the senior author of the study. "In the future, hopefully clinicians may use this knowledge to choose better antiretroviral drug combinations that have the ability to suppress these resistant HIV strains which will lead to better clinical responses in patients."

While HIV survival trends have increased tremendously over the past decade, a significant number of patients develop drug resistance shortly after treatment is initiated. This is particularly true in developed nations where antiretroviral drugs have been widely accessible for years, and is an increasing concern as more treatments reach developing nations with high prevalence of HIV infected populations. The availability of long-term clinical data from the FIRST Study, which lasted five years, enabled correlation of the sequence data with patient outcomes.

"We developed the Ultra Deep Sequencing method exactly to answer this type of question and are very pleased with the power demonstrated in this research study," explained co-lead author Michael Egholm, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer at 454 Life Sciences. "HIV drug-resistance is just one example of a real world problem that we may tackle with this powerful technology in future."

454 Life Sciences, a center of excellence of Roche Applied Science, develops and commercializes the innovative 454 SequencingSsystem for ultra-high-throughput DNA sequencing. Specific applications include de novo sequencing and re-sequencing of genomes, metagenomics, RNA analysis, and targeted sequencing of DNA regions of interest. The hallmarks of the 454 Sequencing System are its simple, unbiased sample preparation and long, highly accurate sequence reads, including paired-end reads. The technology of the 454 Sequencing System has enabled hundreds of peer-reviewed studies in diverse research fields, such as cancer and infectious disease research, drug discovery, marine biology, anthropology, paleontology and many more.

The 454 GS FLX is sold for life science research use only.

454, 454 SEQUENCING, 454 LIFE SCIENCES and GS FLX TITANIUM are trademarks of Roche.

(1) Simen et al. Low-Abundance drug-resistant variants in chronically HIV-infected antiretroviral naive patients significantly impact treatment out comes. (2009) Journal of Infectious Disease. ePub online February 11.

Roche Diagnostics Deutschland GmbH

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As the world's biggest biotech company and an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, and is a market leader in virology. It is also active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases, inflammatory and metabolic disorders and diseases of the central nervous system. In 2008 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 36.0 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 9.7 billion francs. Roche has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai, and invested nearly 9 billion Swiss francs in R&D in 2008. Worldwide, the Group employs about 80,000 people. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.roche.com.

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The publisher indicated in each case (see company info by clicking on image/title or company info in the right-hand column) is solely responsible for the stories above, the event or job offer shown and for the image and audio material displayed. As a rule, the publisher is also the author of the texts and the attached image, audio and information material. The use of information published here is generally free of charge for personal information and editorial processing. Please clarify any copyright issues with the stated publisher before further use. In case of publication, please send a specimen copy to service@pressebox.de.