Correlation between HIV-1 viral load quantification in plasma, dried blood spots, and dried plasma spots using the Roche COBAS Taqman assay

Andreotti, Mauro; Pirillo, Maria; Guidotti, Giovanni; Ceffa, Susanna; Paturzo, Giovanna; Germano, Paola; Luhanga, Richard; Chimwaza, David; Mancini, Maria Grazia; Marazzi, Maria Cristina; Vella, Stefano; Palombi, Leonardo; Giuliano, Marina

doi:10.1016/j.jcv.2009.11.006

« Previous Next »Journal of Clinical Virology
Volume 47, Issue 1 , Pages 4-7, January 2010

Correlation between HIV-1 viral load quantification in plasma, dried blood spots, and dried plasma spots using the Roche COBAS Taqman assay

Mauro Andreotti
- Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy
- Equally contributing to the work.
Maria Pirillo
- Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy
- Equally contributing to the work.
Giovanni Guidotti
- DREAM Program, Community of S. Egidio, Rome, Italy
Susanna Ceffa
- DREAM Program, Community of S. Egidio, Rome, Italy
Giovanna Paturzo
- DREAM Program, Community of S. Egidio, Rome, Italy
Paola Germano
- DREAM Program, Community of S. Egidio, Rome, Italy
Richard Luhanga
- DREAM Program, Community of S. Egidio, Blantyre, Malawi
David Chimwaza
- DREAM Program, Community of S. Egidio, Lilongwe, Malawi
Maria Grazia Mancini
- Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy
Maria Cristina Marazzi
- DREAM Program, Community of S. Egidio, Rome, Italy
- Department of Public Health, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
Stefano Vella
- Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy
Leonardo Palombi
- DREAM Program, Community of S. Egidio, Rome, Italy
- Department of Public Health, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
Marina Giuliano
- Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 06 49903303; fax: +39 06 49387199.

Received 18 August 2009; received in revised form 4 November 2009; accepted 5 November 2009. published online 07 December 2009.

Abstract

Background

The use of simplified methods for viral load determination could greatly increase access to treatment monitoring of HIV patients in resource-limited countries.

Objective

The aim of the present study was to optimize and evaluate the performance of the Roche COBAS Taqman assay in HIV-RNA quantification from dried blood spots (DBS) and dried plasma spots (DPS).

Study design

EDTA blood samples from 108 HIV-infected women were used to prepare 129 DBS and 76 DPS on Whatman 903 card. DBS and DPS were stored at −20°C. HIV-1 RNA was extracted from DBS/DPS using the MiniMAG system (bioMerieux). Amplification and detection were performed using the Roche COBAS TaqMan assay. Plasma viral load results were used as standard.

Results

There was a high correlation between measures of viral load in plasma and in DBS/DPS (r=0.96 and 0.85 respectively, P<0.001). Overall, viral load values in DBS and DPS tended to be lower than in plasma with mean (SD) differences of 0.32 log(0.22) for DBS and of 0.35 (0.33) for DPS. Detection rates were 96.4% for DBS and 96.1% for DPS in samples with corresponding plasma values >3.0logcopies/ml. Samples with HIV-RNA below 50copies/ml were correctly identified in 18/19 DBS and in 7/7 DPS.

Conclusions

Both DBS and DPS provided results highly correlated to the plasma values. High detection rate was obtained with both DBS and DPS when HIV-RNA was >3.0logcopies/ml. Our results support the use of DBS/DPS to detect virologic failure in resource-limited settings.

Keywords: HIV, Resource-limited settings, HIV-RNA, Dried blood spots