Comparison of the bioMerieux NucliSENS EasyQ HIV-1 v2.0-HIV-1 RNA quantification assay versus Abbott RealTime HIV-1 and Roche Cobas TaqMan HIV-1 v2.0 on current epidemic HIV-1 variants

Background: An improved version of the bioMerieux NucliSENS (R) EasyQ (R) HIV-1 v2.0 has been introduced to overcome the underquantification observed with previous versions, especially with non-B HIV-1 subtypes. Objectives: Comparing bioMerieux NucliSENS (R) EasyQ (R) HIV-1 v2.0 versus Roche Cobas CA/CTM v2.0 and Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assays for HIV-1 group M and non-M (N, O, P) viral load measurement. Study design: The three assays were tested in parallel on 103HIV-1 group M plasma samples, and on non-group M HIV-1 culture supernatants. Results: Values obtained for the 103HIV-1 group M plasma samples tested with bioMerieux assay showed good overall correlation compared to the 2 others. The Roche Cobas assay gave higher values than the bioMerieux assay, while Abbott and bioMerieux both displayed similar results. However, analysis showed a wider dispersion in results when comparing the bioMerieux NucliSENS (R) EasyQ (R) HIV-1 v2.0 and the other 2 techniques. All data taken into account, we observed frequent discrepancies in quantification, of the plasma samples and major differences above 1 log in 10/72 (13.8%). The quantification of non-M HIV groups in culture supernatant has shown variable results, with better quantification of HIV-O and of HIV-N respectively with the Abbott assay and the bioMerieux assay. Conclusions: The bioMerieux NucliSENS (R) EasyQ (R) HIV-1 v2.0 showed improved sensitivity to non-B HIV-M subtypes compared to previous versions. Notwithstanding, we observed frequent discrepancies and a wide dispersion in results when comparing bioMerieux NucliSENS (R) EasyQ (R) HIV-1 v2.0 and the other 2 techniques. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.