Clinical outcome of maraviroc-containing therapy in heavily pre-treated HIV-1-infected patients

•Maraviroc therapy in heavily pre-treated HIV-infected patients in a clinical setting was analysed.•Maraviroc-containing cART resulted in good immunological and virological responses.•Different tropism assays correlated well and had a high predictive value.

Available data on the use of maraviroc (MVC) in clinical settings are limited. In this cohort study, the clinical outcomes of HIV-1-infected patients treated with MVC were analysed and the predictive values of different tropism assays were compared. Baseline viral tropism was assessed and compared by phenotypic (Trofile and MT-2) and genotypic assays. Virological and immunological responses were evaluated. In total, 62 predominantly extensively pre-treated patients started MVC [median GSS 2.0 (IQR 2.0–2.5)]. Tropism assays were performed on baseline samples of 58 patients (93.5%). Thirty-two samples (80.0%) were classified as R5 by Trofile, 41 (80.4%) by genotypic tropism test (GTT) and 17 (81.0%) by MT-2. At least two types of tropism assay were performed on samples from 39 patients, whereas in 15 patients all three assays were performed (concordance 84.8–94.1%). Plasma HIV-RNA was <50 copies/mL in 82.1%, 85.0% and 68.8% of patients after 12, 24 and 36 months, respectively; median CD4 cell increase was 199 (IQR 108–283), 291 (IQR 187–413) and 234 (IQR 106–444) cells/μL. The predictive values of different tropism assays were comparably high: at Month 24, 92.9% (Trofile and GTT) and 100.0% (MT-2) of patients had plasma HIV-RNA <50 copies/mL. Three patients stopped MVC treatment because of suspected side effects. Five patients died during follow-up. In this heavily pre-treated cohort, treatment with MVC was well tolerated and resulted in good immunological and virological responses. Results generated by the different tropism assays correlated well with each other and had a high predictive value.