Evaluation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 RNA levels in cerebrospinal fluid and viral resistance to zidovudine in children with HIV encephalopathy

The amount of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 RNA and the presence of a codon 215 mutation indicative of zidovudine resistance were evaluated in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma obtained from HIV-1- infected children. The level of HIV-1 RNA in CSF was highest in children with severe encephalopathy (n = 25; median, 430 copies/mL; range, 0-2.2 x 10⁵ copies/mL) followed by the moderately encephalopathic (n = 7; median, 330; range, 0-1130) and nonencephalopathic groups (n = 9; median, 0; range, 0- 566) (P = .007). There was no correlation between CSF and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels. Five of 7 children with the codon 215 mutation in CSF had a progression of encephalopathy, while all 8 children with wild type codon 215 had improved or stable disease during zidovudine treatment (P = .007). These findings suggest that increased viral replication and emergence of drug- resistant HIV-1 variants within the central nervous system may play a role in progression of HIV encephalopathy.