Clinical use of quantitative molecular methods in studying human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection.

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................135 ROLE OF QUANTITATIVE METHODS................................................................................................................135 Emerging Features of HIV-1 Infection and Consequent Diagnostic Aspects.................................................135 Requirement for Quantitative Methods To Study HIV-1 Infection.................................................................136 QUANTITATION OF SPECIFIC VIRAL DNA AND RNA SEQUENCES.........................................................137 Attempts To Quantify Nucleic Acid Species in Biological Samples ................................................................137 Competitive PCR-Based Methods ........................................................................................................................137 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF HIV-1 INFECTION ............................................................................................139 Primary Infection with HIV-1 ...............................................................................................................................139 Clinical Latency ......................................................................................................................................................139 Disease Progression................................................................................................................................................140 Long-Term Nonprogressor Patients.....................................................................................................................140 MONITORING THERAPY WITH SPECIFIC ANTI-HIV-1 COMPOUNDS.....................................................141 Ideal Parameter To Monitor Efficiency ...............................................................................................................141 Antiretroviral Therapies and Analysis of HIV-1 Load ......................................................................................141 CONCLUDING REMARKS......................................................................................................................................143 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...........................................................................................................................................143 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................................143