Arezoo Marjani - Department of Virology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Farah Bokharaei-Salim - Department of Virology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Fatemeh Jahanbakhshi - Department of Virology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran
Seyed Hamidreza Monavari - Department of Virology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Maryam Esghaei - Department of Virology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Saeed Kalantari - Departments of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Background: One class of antiretrovirals (ARVs), are integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) and are known as an effective antiretroviral therapy )ART). These ARVs have high genetic barrier to resistance and uncommon toxicity than other ARVs. But, INSTIs drug resistance mutations(DRMs) have seldom been detected. The purpose of this research was to determine the prevalence of DRMs associated with INSTIs between treatment-experienced HIV-1 infected individuals. Methods: In this research work, totally, 655 treatment-experienced HIV-1 infected individualsenrolled in this study. Then, amplification and sequencing of the HIV-1 integrase region, DRM and phylogenetic analysis was performed on the plasma samples of patients who had a viral load over 1,000 IU/ml after at least 6 months of ARTs.Results: Of all patients who entered the study, 62 (9.5%) had a viral load more than 1,000 IU/ml after at least 6 months of ARTs. Phylogenetic analysis distinguished that entire of the 62 HIV-1 patients experiencing treatment failure were infected by CRF35_AD, and one of these patients(1.6%) was infected with HIV-1 variants with DRMs. The recognized DRMs dependent on INSTIs class including, E138K, G140A, S147G, and Q148R.Conclusion: Recent research has indicated that DRMs belonging to INSTIs class which includes E138K, G140A, S147G, and Q148R was recognized in Iranian HIV-1 individual who has experienced treatment failure.

HIV-1, integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs); antiretroviral therapy (ART); drug resistance mutations (DRMs); Treatment Experienced