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What proportion of transmitted HIV drug resistance originates from antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive sources? To find out, investigators studied sequences from the U.K. HIV Drug Resistance database, which includes samples from both ART-naive and experienced individuals.
Using a novel phylogenetic method that models transmission lineages of drug-resistance mutations (DRMs) based on genetic and trait similarities among contemporary HIV sequences, the researchers analyzed 24,550 HIV-1 subtype B sequences collected between 1997 and 2011. They estimated persistence of transmission chains using a least-squares molecular clock inference approach.
Based on this approach, about 70% of transmitted drug resistance originated from an ART-naive source (n…