New models outperform genotyping and tailored for use in low-income countries
LONDON, UK; 30th November 2017
The RDI is marking World AIDS Day by launching its most accurate models to date for predicting how HIV patients will respond to any new combination of drugs following therapy failure. The models, which were developed using data from tens of thousands of patients around the world, require far less recent patient data than previous models for their predictions, making them particularly useful for settings with infrequent clinic visits such as low income or rural settings.
Two new sets of models are launched today: one for cases with genotypes available and one for those without. Both sets can accept baseline patient data from as long ago as 6 months in making their predictions. In independent testing, both sets of models were able to predict responses to therapy with around 80% accuracy compared with 53-59% for genotyping alone (with rules-based interpretation). Both sets of models achieved comparable levels of accuracy to models with the old, more demanding baseline data rules.
"The development and performance of these models that have much more practical data requirements is extremely encouraging", commented Professor Robin Wood, Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, University of Cape Town, South Africa and one of the key contributors of data to the study. "This will significantly increase the utility of the system in Southern Africa and other low-resource settings, which is just what we need to help optimise treatment and combat increasing levels of drug resistance."
The new models are now available to be used by healthcare professionals as part of the RDI's HIV Treatment Response Prediction System (HIV-TRePS), which is freely available online at https://www.hivrdi.org/treps A paper describing the development of the models is being submitted for publication in a peer review scientific journal.
The RDI is an independent, not-for-profit international research collaboration set-up in 2002 with the mission to improve the clinical management of HIV infection through the application of bioinformatics to HIV drug resistance and treatment outcome data. Over the 15 years since its inception, the RDI has worked with many of the leading clinicians and scientists in the world to develop the worldaEUR(TM)s largest database of HIV drug resistance and treatment outcome data, containing information from approximately 200,000 patients in more than 30 countries.
HIV-TRePS is an experimental system intended for research use only. The predictions of the system are not intended to replace professional medical care and attention by a qualified medical practitioner and consequently the RDI does not accept any responsibility for the selection of drugs, the patient's response to treatment or differences between the predictions and patients' responses.
For further information contact:
Andrew Revell (Executive Director, RDI) on +44 207 226 7314, +44 7967 126498 (mobile) or andrewrevell@hivrdi.org or visit: https://www.hivrdi.org
Date published: 30th November 2017