CMV Drug Resistance Testing

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a DNA virus. Human CMV (HCMV) disease is consistently associated with three groups of patients: congenitally infected infants, patients with AIDS, and transplant recipients. Treatment for CMV infection involves anti-viral drugs - Ganciclovir, Cidofovir, Foscarnet Brincidofovir, etc. These drugs target viral kinase (UL97 gene) or a viral DNA polymerase (UL54 gene) of CMV. Drug resistance results from the evolution of single or multiple mutations that confer various levels of resistance. This test is used to determine whether a patient with CMV has a mutated form of the virus that does not respond to anti-viral. Detection of drug resistance mutations helps to make appropriate changes in antiviral therapy. If antiviral resistance is not tested for it can cause higher rates of mortality and recurrent CMV infection. This is a targeted next-generation sequencing-based CE-IVD test.