Evaluation of antiretroviral effect on mitochondrial DNA depletion among HIV-infected patients in Bali

Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are the cornerstone of highly active antiretroviral therapy combination regimens for HIV infection. Unfortunately, NRTIs have been noticeably associated with many adverse effects related to mitochondrial toxicity leading to mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (mtDNA) depletion. However, similar mitochondrial dysfunction has recently been found even in antiretroviral therapy-naïve patients, suggesting HIV itself could contribute to this abnormality. In this study, we determine whether mtDNA depletion was present in either antiretroviral therapy-naïve or NRTI-treated patients at Sanjiwani Hospital, Bali, Indonesia. A cross-sectional study was conducted from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of HIV patients. Specifically, the relative content of mtDNA ( gene) to nuclear DNA ( gene) was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Data were analyzed with SPSS 16.0 software and GraphPad Prism 7.02. A total of 84 samples (67 on NRTIs and 17 HIV-naïve) were suitable for analysis. We identified 21.4% of the samples (18/84) with mtDNA:nDNA ratio