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Comparison of the COBAS TAQMAN HIV-1 HPS with VERSANT HIV-1 RNA 3.0 assay (bDNA) for plasma RNA quantitation in different HIV-1 subtypes.

Gomes P, Palma AC, Cabanas J, Abecasis A, Carvalho AP, Ziermann R, Diogo I, Gonçalves F, Lobo CS, Camacho R

Laboratório de Virologia, Serviço de Imuno-Hemoterapia, Hospital Egas Moniz, Rua da Junqueria 126, 1349-019 Lisboa, Portugal. p.gomes@netcabo.pt

Quantitation of HIV-1 RNA levels in plasma has an undisputed prognostic value and is extremely important for evaluating response to antiretroviral therapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the real-time PCR COBAS TaqMan 48 analyser, comparing it to the existing VERSANT 3.0 (bDNA) for HIV-1 RNA quantitation in plasma of individuals infected with different HIV-1 subtypes (104 blood samples). A positive linear correlation between the two tests (r2 = 0.88) was found. Quantitation by the COBAS TaqMan assay was approximately 0.32log10 higher than by bDNA. The relationship between the two assays was similar within all subtypes with a Deming regression of <1 and <0 for the Bland-Altman plots. Overall, no significant differences were found in plasma viral load quantitation in different HIV-1 subtypes between both assays; therefore these assays are suitable for viral load quantitation of highly genetically diverse HIV-1 plasma samples.

Published 20 June 2006 in J Virol Methods, 135(2): 223-8.
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