Researchers develop new test for HIV

? A new test that detects whether patients with HIV/AIDS are infected with even small amounts of drug-resistant forms of the virus has been developed by researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

The discovery, published online Sunday in the journal Nature Methods, may help doctors more accurately predict which medicines will work for patients, and which drugs will ultimately fail. Current tests only pick up drug-resistant strains if they represent a significant portion of the virus circulating in a person’s bloodstream.

Detecting resistance quicker would make it possible to keep patients healthy longer, reduce treatment costs and even help cut an infected person’s risk of spreading HIV to others. When drug treatment fails, the virus proliferates in the blood of infected people, causing them to become more contagious.

“This can be huge,” Dr. Feng Gao, a Duke HIV/AIDS researcher and co-author of the journal article, said of the new genetic test. Gao’s lab at Duke perfected the testing process and conducted the experiments to prove its accuracy and sensitivity.

To date, the new test has been used for research purposes only, but Duke is seeking patents that will enable it to develop a diagnostic screening for future commercial use. Duke does not yet have a private industry backer, and still must show through other studies that the process helps improve treatment outcome.