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Virological and immunological effects of salvage therapy following treatment interruption and a shift in HIV‐1 resistance genotype

The circulating human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1) population of patients in whom many prior therapy regimens have failed often undergo a shift from a drug‐resistant virus to a wild‐type virus following interruption of treatment. This study analyses the virological and immunological effects of salvage therapy following treatment interruption and a shift from a drug‐resistance genotype. Twenty‐one HIV‐1 infected patients who had genotype reversion by population‐based sequencing after 3 months of treatment interruption were given a new salvage regimen consisting of 3–5 drugs selected according to their treatment history. Seven (33%) of 21 patients who had fewer than 200 HIV‐1 RNA copies/ml until month 12 were defined as virological responders. Four patients were transient responders and 10 were nonresponders. The virological responders were more frequently CDC group A and had higher CD4 + T lymphocyte counts at the time of treatment resumption. The peripheral blood T CD4 + and T CD8 + lymphocyte populations of the patients declined significantly during treatment interruption. Only virological responders showed significant increases in their CD4 + T lymphocyte count 12 months after treatment resumption and these counts rapidly returned to pre‐interruption baseline values in most of these patients. Treatment interruption could be useful for optimising salvage therapy for patients previously given many failing regimens. However, controlled trials are needed to assess the clinical benefit of this strategy. J. Med. Virol. 68:305–310, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.