What is Tropism?

Coreceptor tropism is defined as the ability of a particular HIV-1 virus to infect a target cell using a specific coreceptor. HIV requires two binding events to enter into a cell. It must first bind CD4 and then, secondly, a chemokine receptor. Tropism is a label given to the virus that describes which chemokine receptor the virus is using.

Tropism 101

The HIV-1 viruses can be characterized into four broad classifications based on their tropism status.

RS-tripic R5-tropic: Viruses or virus populations that can use only the CCR5 chemokine coreceptor to infect CD4+ cells.
X4-tropic: X4-tropic: Viruses or virus populations that can use only the CXCR4 chemokine coreceptor to infect CD4+ cells.
Dual (D)-tropicDual (D)-tropic: Viruses or virus populations that can use either the CCR5 or CXCR4 coreceptors to infect CD4+ cells.
Mixed (M)-tropic: Virus populations that may contain various combinations of R5 virus, X4 virus, and/or dual-tropic viruses.

Trofile® Assays Determine Viral Tropism

Monogram currently offers two tests for tropism determination for both suppressed and nonsuppressed patients.

More than 100,000 samples have been tested using Monogram’s Trofile® assays. All trials of coreceptor antagonists have used Trofile in their clinical development. Trofile has been shown to be accurate, precise, sensitive, reproducible, and robust in the measurement of HIV-1 coreceptor tropism.

The current US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines recommend that a coreceptor tropism test be performed whenever the use of a CCR5 inhibitor is being considered.1,2 Coreceptor tropism testing might also be considered for patients who exhibit virologic failure on a CCR5 inhibitor.1

trofile

For patients with detectable viral loads ≥ 1000 copies/mL

trofileDNA

For patients with undetectable viral loads

Trofile Select

For patients with unknown viral load. Determines HIV-1 coreceptor tropism by selection of the appropriate assay, Trofile or Trofile DNA, through an initial prescreening viral assessment.