No difference in HIV-1 integrase resistance between CSF and blood compartments Short title: HIV-1 integrase resistance in compartments

International audience; Background: Little is known about the HIV-1 integrase resistance in CNS. This study aimed to evaluate integrase resistance in CSF, as a marker of CNS, and compare it to the HIV resistance in plasma. Methods: The HIV integrase was sequenced both in plasma and CSF for 59 HIV-1 patients. The clinical and biological data were collected from clinical routine care. Results: Among the 59 HIV-1 patients, 32 (54.2%) were under antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. The median (IQR) HIV-1 RNA in viremic patients was 5.32 (3.85-5.80) and 3.59 (2.16-4.50) versus 4.79 (3.56-5.25) and 3.80 (2.68-4.33) in CSF log10 copies/mL for ARV naïve and treated patients, respectively. The patients were mainly infected with non-B subtypes (72.2%) with the most prevalent recombinant form CRF02_AG (42.4%). The HIV-1 integrase sequences presented resistance mutations for 9/27 (33.3%) and 8/32 (25.0%) in CSF for ARV naïve (L74I n=3, L74I/M n=1, T97A n=1, E157Q n=4) and treated (L74I n=6, L74M n=1, 1 T97A n=1, 1 N155H n=1) patients, respectively. Integrase resistance mutations in CSF were similar to that in plasma, except for 1/59 patients. Conclusions: This work shows similar integrase resistance profiles in CNS and plasma in a population of HIV-1 viremic patients.