Understanding HIV-1 tropism is crucial for effective treatment of entry barrier drugs in HIV-1 infection. GeneOmbio Technologies offers the “geneO-Tropism” assay, a diagnostic tool that identifies whether the dominant HIV-1 strain in a patient utilizes the CCR5 or CXCR4 co-receptor, or both (dual/mixed tropism), to infect target immune cells. This advanced test, based on PCR and DNA sequencing of the HIV-1 envelope gene’s V3 loop, provides vital information to predict response to the certain entry barrier drugs. Knowing your HIV-1 virus tropism type helps your doctor determine a candidate for maraviroc (Entry barrier drug), a specific medication.

This test should be performed before administration of drugs and planning a treatment for the affected individual. Sample accepted for this test is EDTA Plasma. Turn around time is 15 days.

In our facility, there are five types of drug resistance tests performed:

• • This test will inform the patient if the drug like protease inhibitors and reverse transcriptase inhibitors will be effective on the patient.
  • Checks for resistance against protease inhibitor drugs only.
  • This test will inform if resistance against reverse transcriptase drugs is present in the affected individual.
  • Checks for resistance against integrase inhibitor drugs.
  • This test checks if there is resistance present against all the three drug types- protease inhibitors, reverse transcriptase inhibitors and integrase inhibitors.