• Overview
• Research Areas
• Viral Oncology: HPV and Hepatitis
• HIV Detection, Genotyping, and Monitoring
• Viral Panel for Immuno-compromised Patients
• Real-time Biosurveillance

HIV Quantitative Genotyping

HIV management represents a scientific and healthcare triumph. In the USA, a monitoring regimen of viral load and resistance genotyping, combined with effective prescription of antiretroviral drugs, has more than doubled the life expectancy of HIV infected individuals. Bringing this level of success to HIV management in other countries remains a significant global challenge.

Three aspects of existing monitoring regimens have scope for improvement:

• Strain coverage: Existing PCR primers may miss unusual strains. One simulation involving 1500 HIV strains predicts that common primers will fail to amplify the envelope gene from more than half of the strains and the reverse-transcriptase gene from at least 25% of the strains.

Sensitivity of resistance genotyping: Drugs encourage resistance, particularly in cases of incomplete adherence to treatment regimens. Low level resistant variants can lead to viral escape from a treatment regimen and require new and often more expensive drug regimens to bring under control.

Cost: Resource poor areas often have the greatest HIV burden but the least access to means to manage the disease. Lowering the cost of HIV management will have a significant impact on global control of HIV.

The US Department of Health and Human Services recommends resistance testing prior to initiating therapy, for therapy failture, and for pregnant women.

Pathogenica has developed a sensitive HIV Quantitative Genotyping test for routine viral load monitoring that offers:

• 100% strain coverage from a single assay
• Sensitvity down to >10 copies of viral genome
• Genotyping of drug resistance mutations across 1500 HIV strains

A unique and valuable feature of the Pathogenica quantitative genotyping test is the combination of viral load and resistance genotyping in a single test. One-click ordering of an antitertroviral resistance report is enabled for any sample indicating elevated viral load. The Pathogenica assay allows patients to be put on the correct drug resistance cocktail weeks faster than possible before.

The Pathogenica test has the capacity to incorporate host marker screening, genotyping the patient in addition to the virus to allow doctors to integrate the latest medical research into their choice of drug therapy.