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RC Overview
Replication Capacity (RC) measures how well a patient virus is able to replicate compared to a wild-type reference virus. Although drug resistance mutations enable viruses to replicate in the presence of drug, they may do so at some fitness cost to the viruses.
The value of RC information has been investigated (using Monogram's RC assay) in several clinical studies to date. These studies have shown correlations between RC and viral load, CD4 count, and resistance status (phenotype and genotype results). While these studies do not specifically indicate how and when an RC assay should be used, they do provide evidence that knowing how "fit" HIV is can be useful in the management of the virus. In particular, RC information may help in knowing when to delay, start, stop, switch or interrupt therapy. For example, in highly treatment-experienced patients with mulit-drug resistance, viruses with low RC values may be associated with stable or increasing CD4 counts, which reduces the need for regimen change.
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