New Test from Quest Diagnostics Helps Physicians Choose HIV Antiretroviral Therapy in Patients with History of Drug ...(the cell are called R5-tropic those usin...)

Date:6/12/2009

the cell are called R5-tropic, those using CXCR4 are called X4-tropic, and those using both are called dual-tropic. X4- and dual-tropic viruses typically emerge after years of infection and are found in up to half of patients with a history of drug resistance or those with advanced disease. Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend tropism testing prior to the start of a CCR5 inhibitor, such as maraviroc (Selzentry TM). Three out of four people taking HIV drugs experience treatment failure linked to drug resistance.

"CCR5 antagonist entry inhibitors have given physicians new options for treating thousands of patients with HIV who have shown resistance to earlier HIV therapies. Yet, they are only suitable for about half of these patients due to different ways the virus tries to infect cells," said Jay G. Wohlgemuth, M.D., vice president of Science and Innovation, Quest Diagnostics. "With our new tropism test, we expect to report results within seven days of receiving a patient specimen, compared to the leading commercial HIV tropism test, which requires two weeks of processing time once a sample is received. Considering that tropism status can change in as little as a few weeks in patients with a history of HIV drug resistance, faster results potentially translate into earlier initiation of efficacious therapy."

At the XVIII International HIV Drug Resistance Workshop in Fort Meyers, Florida, Quest Diagnostics scientists yesterday presented results of a three-way study using samples from patients with histories of drug resistance that found that the Quest Diagnostics HIV-1 Coreceptor Tropism laboratory developed test demonstrated 74 percent agreement with Trofile(TM), the leading phenotypic tropism test available from Monogram Biosciences, and 74 percent agreement with SensiTrop(TM) II, a genotypic tropism test previously available from Pathway Diagnostics. The SensiTrop(TM) II test, which is no long
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SOURCE Quest Diagnostics Incorporated Copyright©2009 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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