Risk factors for symptomatic hyperlactatemia and lactic acidosis among combination antiretroviral therapy-treated adults in Botswana: results from a clinical trial

Serum uric acid and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels among people living with HIV on dolutegravir and ritonavir-boosted atazanavir-based antiretroviral therapy: a comparative cross-sectional study

Background

After the introduction of antiretroviral therapy, the care given to people living with HIV has become complicated by the appearance of comorbidities as a result of HIV and HAART toxicities, in which cardiovascular disease got the most attention. So, this study aimed to assess serum uric acid and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels among people living with HIV on dolutegravir (DTG) and ritonavir-boosted atazanavir (ATV/r)-based therapy.

Methods

An institutional-based comparative cross-sectional study was conducted from November 4, 2021, to January 4, 2022. An equal number of dolutegravir- and ritonavir-boosted atazanavir-treated patients (n = 86 each) were enrolled. A consecutive sampling method was used to select participants. Data were entered into Epidata version 4.6, exported to SPSS version 25.0, and analyzed using Chi-square, Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and logistic regression. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

Results

The prevalence of hyperuricemia and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels ≥2 mg/L were 46.5% (40/86) and 24.4% (21/86) in the DTG group, and 30.2% (26/86) and 44.2 (38/86) in the ATV/r group, respectively. When compared to ATV/r, a higher mean level of uric acid was found among DTG-based regimens (5.38 mg/dL). Duration of ART (AOR = 2, 95% CI: 1.2, 4.4) and DTG-based regimen (AOR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.04, 3.8) were significant predictors of developing hyperuricemia. ATV/r-based regimen (AOR = 3, 95% CI: 1.5, 8.3) and high waist circumference (AOR = 2.5, 95% CI: 1, 3.5) were significantly associated with increased high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels.

Conclusion

It is observed that DTG-based and ATV/r-based ART are associated with hyperuricemia and increased high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels, respectively. Therefore, it is important to consider and evaluate serum uric acid and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels in patients taking DTG and ATV/r-based ART, as well as among those on HAART for years and with a higher waist circumference, so as to detect and prevent early the risk of having CVD.

Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors induced hepatocellular mitochondrial DNA lesions and compensatory enhancement of mitochondrial function and DNA repair

Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are the backbone of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) and are widely used in anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) therapy. Long-term administration of NRTIs can result in mitochondrial dysfunction in certain HIV-1-infected patients. However, NRTI-associated liver mitochondrial toxicity is not well known. Herein, the liver autopsy of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients and the liver tissues of mice with 12 months of NRTI exposure were used to identify NRTI-associated liver toxicity with immunofluorescence, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), Amplex red and horseradish peroxidase, and cloning and sequencing. Laser capture microdissection was used to capture hepatocytes from liver tissues. We observed DNA oxidative damage and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) loss in the livers of AIDS patients, and cART patients had higher DNA oxidative damage and lower DNA repair function in liver tissues than non-cART patients. We also observed liver oxidative damage, increased DNA repair and mtDNA loss in mice with exposure to four different NRTIs for 12 months, and hepatocytes had no more mtDNA loss than liver tissues. Although NRTIs could induce mitochondrial hydrogen peroxide production, increased mitochondrial oxygen consumption was found with a Clark-type electrode. The captured hepatocytes had greater diversity in their mtDNA D-loop, dehydrogenase subunit1 (ND1) and ND4 than the controls. Long-term NRTI exposure induced single nucleotide variation in hepatocellular mtDNA D-loop, ND1 and ND4. Our findings indicate that NRTIs can induce liver mtDNA lesions, but simultaneously enhance mitochondrial function and mtDNA repair.

Antiretroviral therapy related adverse effects: Can sub-Saharan Africa cope with the new "test and treat" policy of the World Health Organization?

BACKGROUND

Recent studies have shown that early antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation results in significant HIV transmission reduction. This is the rationale behind the "test and treat" policy of the World Health Organization (WHO). Implementation of this policy will lead to an increased incidence of ART-related adverse effects, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Is the region yet ready to cope with such a challenging issue?

MAIN BODY

The introduction and widespread use of ART have drastically changed the natural history of HIV/AIDS, but exposure to ART leads to serious medication-related adverse effects mainly explained by mitochondrial toxicities, and the situation will get worse in the near future. Indeed, ART is associated with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, lipodystrophy, prediabetes and overt diabetes, insulin resistance and hyperlactatemia/lactic acidosis. The prevalence of these disorders is already high in SSA, and the situation will be exacerbated by the implementation of the new WHO recommendations. Most SSA countries are characterized by (extreme) poverty, very weak health systems, inadequate and low quality of health services, inaccessibility to existing health facilities, lack of (qualified) health personnel, lack of adequate equipment, inaccessibility and unaffordability of medicines, and heavy workload in a context of a double burden of disease. Additionally, there is dearth of data on the incidence and predictive factors of ART-related adverse effects in SSA, to anticipate on strategies that should be put in place to prevent the occurrence of these conditions or properly estimate the upcoming burden and prepare an adequate response plan. These are required if we are to anticipate and effectively prevent this upcoming burden.

CONCLUSION

While SSA would be the first region to experience the huge benefits of implementing the "test and treat" policy of the WHO, the region is not yet prepared to manage the consequential increased burden of ART-related toxic and metabolic complications. Urgent measures should be taken to fill the lacunae if SSA is not to become over-burdened by the consequences of the "test and treat" policy.

Role of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease as risk factor for drug-induced hepatotoxicity

BACKGROUND

Obesity is often associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which refers to a large spectrum of hepatic lesions including fatty liver, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and cirrhosis. Different investigations showed or suggested that obesity and NAFLD are able to increase the risk of hepatotoxicity of different drugs. Some of these drugs could induce more frequently an acute hepatitis in obese individuals whereas others could worsen pre-existing NAFLD.

AIM

The main objective of the present review was to collect the available information regarding the role of NAFLD as risk factor for drug-induced hepatotoxicity. For this purpose, we performed a data-mining analysis using different queries including drug-induced liver injury (or DILI), drug-induced hepatotoxicity, fatty liver, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (or NAFLD), steatosis and obesity. The main data from the collected articles are reported in this review and when available, some pathophysiological hypotheses are put forward.

RELEVANCE FOR PATIENTS

Drugs that could pose a potential risk in obese patients include compounds belonging to different pharmacological classes such as acetaminophen, halothane, methotrexate, rosiglitazone, stavudine and tamoxifen. For some of these drugs, experimental investigations in obese rodents confirmed the clinical observations and unveiled different pathophysiological mechanisms which could explain why these pharmaceuticals are particularly hepatotoxic in obesity and NAFLD. Other drugs such as pentoxifylline, phenobarbital and omeprazole might also pose a risk but more investigations are required to determine whether this risk is significant or not. Because obese people often take several drugs for the treatment of different obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia and coronary heart disease, it is urgent to identify the main pharmaceuticals that can cause acute hepatitis on a fatty liver background or induce NAFLD worsening.

Pharmacogenomics of antimicrobial agents

Antimicrobial efficacy and toxicity varies between individuals owing to multiple factors. Genetic variants that affect drug-metabolizing enzymes may influence antimicrobial pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, thereby determining efficacy and/or toxicity. In addition, many severe immune-mediated reactions have been associated with HLA class I and class II genes. In the last two decades, understanding of pharmacogenomic factors that influence antimicrobial efficacy and toxicity has rapidly evolved, leading to translational success such as the routine use of HLA-B*57:01 screening to prevent abacavir hypersensitivity reactions. This article examines recent advances in the field of antimicrobial pharmacogenomics that potentially affect treatment efficacy and toxicity, and challenges that exist between pharmacogenomic discovery and translation into clinical use.

Mitochondrial DNA D-loop AG/TC transition mutation in cortical neurons of mice after long-term exposure to nucleoside analogues

With the wide application of combined antiretroviral therapy, the prognosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infected patient has been significantly improved. However, long-term administration of antiretroviral drugs can result in various drug-associated toxicities. Among them, nucleoside analogues were confirmed to inhibit DNA polymerase gamma, resulting in mitochondrial toxicity. Our previous study indicated that long-term exposure of mice to nucleoside analogue could induce mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) loss in cortical neurons. Herein, we further identify mitochondrial toxicity of four nucleoside analogues (zidovudine (AZT), stavudine (D4T), lamivudine (3TC), and didanosine (DDI)) by cloning and sequencing mtDNA D-loop region in mice neurons captured with laser capture microdissection. The results showed that mutation of neuronal mtDNA D-loop sequences increased in mice treated with each of the four nucleoside analogues for 4 months and D4T and DDI induced more severe D-loop lesion than the other two nucleoside analogues. The major type of D-loop point mutations induced by four nucleoside analogues was transition, in particular of "A→G" and "T→C" transition, but the point transition sites were variable. Our findings suggest that long-term exposure to nucleoside analogue can result in mtDNA D-loop region lesion in mouse cortical neurons.

Nutritional status of HIV-infected patients during the first year HAART in two West African cohorts

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between nutritional markers at initiation and during follow up in two different cohorts of HIV-infected adults initiating highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in West Africa.

METHODS

The ATARAO study was a one year prospective study carried in Mali. It consisted of a sample of consecutive patients initiating HAART in one of four participating centers during that period. Data were collected at time of treatment initiation (baseline) and every 3 months thereafter. The ANRS 1290 study followed Senegalese patients recruited in similar conditions. Bivariate analyses were used to identify nutritional and immunological covariates of malnutrition at baseline. Longitudinal trajectories of body mass index, hemoglobin and albumin, and their associated factors, were evaluated using mixed linear models.

RESULTS

In ATARAO, 250 participants were retained for analyses; of which, 36% had a BMI < 18.5 kg/m(2), nearly 60% were anemic and 47.4% hypoalbuminemic at time of treatment initiation. At baseline, low hemoglobin, hypoalbuminemia and low CD4 levels were associated with a BMI < 18.5 kg/m(2). Similarly, low BMI, low albumin and low CD4 counts were linked to anemia; while, hypoalbuminemia was associated with low hemoglobin levels and CD4 counts. In ANRS, out of the 372 participants retained for analyses, 31% had a low BMI and almost 70% were anemic. At baseline, low BMI was associated with low hemoglobin levels and CD4 counts, while anemia was associated with low CD4 counts and female sex. While treatment contributed to early gains in BMI, hemoglobin and albumin in the first 6 months of treatment, initial improvements plateaued or subsided thereafter. Despite HAART, malnutrition persisted in both cohorts after one year, especially in those who were anemic, hypoalbuminemic or had a low BMI at baseline.

CONCLUSION

In ATARAO and ANRS, malnutrition was common across all indicators (BMI, hemoglobin, albumin) and persisted despite treatment. Low BMI, anemia and hypoalbuminemia were associated with attrition, and with a deficient nutritional and immunological status at baseline, as well as during treatment. In spite of therapy, malnutrition is associated with negative clinical and treatment outcomes which suggests that HAART may not be sufficient to address co-existing nutritional deficiencies.

Differences in antiretroviral safety and efficacy by sex in a multinational randomized clinical trial

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Worldwide, 50% of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected people are women. This study was to evaluate whether the safety and efficacy outcomes of three initial antiretroviral regimens (ARVs) differed by sex.

METHODS

Antiretroviral regimen naive participants from nine countries in four continents were assigned to ARVs with efavirenz (EFV) plus lamivudine-zidovudine, atazanavir (ATV) plus didanosine (ddI)-EC/emtricitabine (FTC) or EFV plus FTC-tenofovir-DF. The primary objective was to estimate the sex difference on efficacy outcome of treatment failure defined as one of the following: 1. Time to 1st of confirmed virologic failure, 2. WHO Stage 4 progression or 3. death with hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) from adjusted Cox regression models.

RESULTS

In all, 739 (47%) women and 832 (53%) men with HIV were evaluated. Women had higher pretreatment CD4+(182 vs 165 cells/mm(3); P < 0.001) and lower HIV-1 RNA (4.9 log10 vs 5.2 log10 copies/ml; P < 0.001) compared to men. Association of sex with time to regimen failure differed by treatment arm (P = 0.018). For atazanavir plus didanosine-EC plus emtricitabine, women had a longer time to treatment failure compared to men [adjusted HR (aHR) = 0.59; 95% CI 0.40-0.87]. Women were less likely to prematurely discontinue treatment prematurely (aHR = 0.74; 95% CI 0.56-0.98). Women assigned to efavirenz plus lamivudine-zidovudine were more likely to have a primary safety event compared to men (aHR = 1.49; 95% CI 1.18-1.88).

CONCLUSION

Antiretroviral efficacy and safety differed by sex in this study. Consideration of potential effects of sex on antiretroviral outcomes is important for the design of future clinical trials and for HIV treatment guidelines.

Long-term exposure of mice to nucleoside analogues disrupts mitochondrial DNA maintenance in cortical neurons

Nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI), an integral component of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), was widely used to inhibit HIV replication. Long-term exposure to NRTIs can result in mitochondrial toxicity which manifests as lipoatrophy, lactic acidosis, cardiomyopathy and myopathy, as well as polyneuropathy. But the cerebral neurotoxicity of NRTIs is still not well known partly due to the restriction of blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the complex microenvironment of the central nervous system (CNS). In this study, the Balb/c mice were administered 50 mg/kg stavudine (D4T), 100 mg/kg zidovudine (AZT), 50 mg/kg lamivudine (3TC) or 50 mg/kg didanosine (DDI) per day by intraperitoneal injection, five days per week for one or four months, and primary cortical neurons were cultured and exposed to 25 µM D4T, 50 µM AZT, 25 µM 3TC or 25 µM DDI for seven days. Then, single neuron was captured from mouse cerebral cortical tissues by laser capture microdissection. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) levels of the primary cultured cortical neurons, and captured neurons or glial cells, and the tissues of brains and livers and muscles were analyzed by relative quantitative real-time PCR. The data showed that mtDNA did not lose in both NRTIs exposed cultured neurons and one month NRTIs treated mouse brains. In four months NRTIs treated mice, brain mtDNA levels remained unchanged even if the mtDNA levels of liver (except for 3TC) and muscle significantly decreased. However, mtDNA deletion was significantly higher in the captured neurons from mtDNA unchanged brains. These results suggest that long-term exposure to NRTIs can result in mtDNA deletion in mouse cortical neurons.

Persistently elevated serum interleukin-6 predicts mortality among adults receiving combination antiretroviral therapy in Botswana: results from a clinical trial

Elevated serum levels of inflammatory biomarkers have been associated with increased mortality and morbidity among HIV-infected individuals receiving combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in European and U.S. cohorts. Few similar data are available from sub-Saharan Africa, where most cART-treated adults reside and the prevalence of advanced immunosuppression and opportunistic infections (OIs) at cART initiation is higher. This was a retrospective nested case-control analysis of clinical trial data from the completed Adult Antiretroviral Treatment and Drug Resistance ("Tshepo") study, 2002-2007, Gaborone, Botswana. We measured pretreatment serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), high sensitivity C-reactive protein, and D-dimer in stored plasma samples from 32 deceased participants (cases) and 64 survivors (controls), matched for age, sex, baseline CD4(+) cell count, and plasma HIV-1 RNA. Multivariate conditional logistic regression analyses were used to compare inflammatory biomarker levels, adjusting for pretreatment body mass index (BMI) and the presence of OIs. A total of 37 (5.7%) of 650 patients died on study, for a crude mortality rate of 20.6/1,000 person-years. Of 37 (86%) study participants who died on study 32 were included in this analysis. Causes of death (n=32) included non-AIDS-defining events (31.3%), HIV-related OIs (28.1%), cART/toxicity-related (21.9%), other infectious etiologies (15.6%), and unknown (3.1%). Median time to death was 31 weeks [interquartile range (IQR) 14-64]. Median baseline levels of all three biomarkers were higher in cases compared to matched controls. After adjusting for BMI and the presence of OIs, only baseline and most recent (near time of event) levels of IL-6 remained as significant predictors of all-cause mortality [adjusted OR (aOR)=1.25, 95% CI (1.05-1.48); p=0.012; and aOR=1.48 (1.05-2.09); p=0.027, respectively]. Serum IL-6 levels are important predictors of all-cause mortality in this adult urban sub-Saharan African cART-treated population. Future translational studies are warranted to better elucidate pathophysiology and inform the design of novel interventions to ameliorate the risk of death among these "at-risk" individuals.

Host genomic influences on HIV/AIDS

The AIDS era has seen multiple advances in the power of genetics research; scores of host genetic protective factors have been nominated and several have translated to the bedside. We discuss how genomics may inform HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and eradication.