Quest launches "quicker" HIV tropism test in US
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Quest Diagnostics has launched its HIV-1 coreceptor tropism test, to determine whether HIV patients will respond to CCR5-targeting drugs, as a lab service in the US. The Madison, New Jersey firm claims its test provides results in "half the time of the nearest competing test", Monogram Biosciences' Trofile (seven versus 14 days). Both tests identify which coreceptor a patient's HIV virus uses to enter human CD4 cells – CCR5, CXCR4, or a combination. This is known as the patient's "tropism". CCR5 antagonists, such as Pfizer's Selzentry (maraviroc), block the CCR5 coreceptor and therefore HIV entry, but only in CCR5-tropic patients. Trofile was launched in the US in August 2007.