Evaluation of Nanopore MinION in HIV molecular testing v2.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Evaluation of Third-Generation Sequencing Technology (Oxford Nanopore MinION) for HIV-1 Drug Resistance Mutation Single Genome Linkage Analysis
IRAS ID
213258
Contact name
Paul D Scott
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Heart of England NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Patients infected with HIV are treated with a combination of antiviral drugs, but resistance mutations can develop during therapy which requires a change in treatment. All HIV patients are offered resistance testing to identify resistance mutations and advise clinicians about appropriate alternative treatments.
HIV viruses within a patient are made up of a population that can differ in which drugs they are resistant to. Presently resistance mutations are detected by sequencing multiple viruses present in a patient sample, but this means you are not able to determine if resistance mutations to different drugs are present on a single virus.
The aim of this project is to determine if, by using new technology (Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencer) which enables you to sequence long regions of DNA, you can determine if resistance mutations are present on the same or different viruses. Amplified HIV material from patients that have previously been analysed using the current testing protocol will be analysed using the MinION technology. All samples will be anonymised to the researcher. The results from the two assays will be compared. This is a proof of principle project, but it is envisaged that this research may impact on the treatment choices for patients, especially those with limited options in the future.
The project is being funded by the British HIV Association.REC name
South East Scotland REC 02
REC reference
16/SS/0151
Date of REC Opinion
22 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion