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

The absolute quantitation of specific human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA and DNA sequences in clinical specimens from infected persons with different clinical conditions is necessary, at present, to study the natural history and pathogenicity of HIV-1 infection and to allow rational medical management of treated and untreated HIV-1 patients. Recently, methods for semiquantitative and quantitative analysis of HIV-1 nucleic acid sequences have been developed and cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have been performed to study the HIV-1 load and activity in samples from infected patients by quantitative molecular assays. The data obtained with these researches have shown that a direct correlation exists between viral load and disease progression. More recently, pilot studies demonstrated the ability of quantitative molecular methods to monitor specific anti-HIV-1 therapies in real time. All this suggests that the opportunity of quantifying specific viral RNA and DNA species increases significantly the diagnostic potential of virological laboratories in studying HIV-1-infected persons.