|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Replication Capacity
Replication Capacity (RC) deals with how well HIV makes copies of itself and multiplies in order to survive. This is sometimes referred to as "viral fitness." Measuring how "fit" a virus is can be helpful because the measurement may predict how fast your disease will progress. Very fit viruses tend to lead to advanced disease more quickly than unfit viruses. Often when HIV mutates and becomes drug-resistant, it also sacrifices its ability to grow well and survive. So when a drug-resistant virus isn't as fit as a drug-sensitive (or wild-type) virus, it is described as having a reduced RC.
The potential usefulness of RC information has recently been observed in clinical studies. These studies have found that viruses with low RC can lead to slower disease progression with stable or increasing CD4 counts and lower viral loads. These findings help support RC as a valuable new tool for the management of HIV. A measure of RC is now available through Monogram's RC assay. To learn more about the RC assay, click here.
|
|
 |
