Serum lipid profiles among patients initiating ritonavir-boosted atazanavir versus efavirenz-based regimens

Atherogenic Index of Plasma and High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein Levels Among People Living With HIV on Dolutegravir and Ritonavir-Boosted Atazanavir-Based Antiretroviral Therapy and Their Correlations to CD4 Cell Counts

Background: Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels which are strong predictors of the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) seen elevated in the serum of people living with HIV (PLWH) on HAART and in those with low cluster of differentiation-4 (CD4) cell counts. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate AIP and hsCRP levels among PLWH on dolutegravir (DTG) and ritonavir-boosted atazanavir-based (ATV/r) antiretroviral therapy (ART) and their correlations to CD4 cell counts. Methods: The study design was an institutional-based comparative cross-sectional study conducted from November 4, 2021, to January 4, 2022. The total sample size was 172 with equal number of DTG and ritonavir-boosted atazanavir-treated PLWH. Participants were recruited by a consecutive sampling method. The data were entered into EpiData Version 4.6, then exported to SPSS Version 25.0, and analyzed using Chi-square, Student's t-test, and Pearson correlation. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: AIP was significantly higher among individuals on ATV/r, with levels in the range of 0.1-0.24 at 44.2% and > 0.24 at 31.4%, compared with those on DTG-based regimens of ART, which showed levels of 39.5% and 9.3%, respectively. Similarly, the higher hsCRP level of ≥ 2 mg/L was observed among patients on ATV/r (44.2%) than in DTG-based (24.4%) regimens of ART. AIP and hsCRP were negatively correlated with CD4 cell counts with Pearson correlation coefficients of -0.46 and -0.38, respectively. Conclusion: From the study conducted, it can be concluded that the higher levels of AIP and hsCRP were seen in patients treated by ATV/r than in DTG-based regimens of ART and in PLWH with low CD4 cell counts. Therefore, routine monitoring of both AIP and hsCRP levels was a good marker of HIV disease progression and cardiovascular disease risk assessment in PLWH, particularly in developing countries where CD4 cell count testing is expensive and not easily available.

Serum Lipid Profiles of Patients Taking Efavirenz-Based Antiretroviral Regimen Compared to Ritonavir-Boosted Atazanavir with an Optimized Background at Zewditu Memorial Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background

Dyslipidemia represents significant health care concerns in patients taking antiretroviral therapy due to their association with cardiovascular disease risk. There is limited data regarding the effects of boosted atazanavir (ATV/r) treatment in the lipid profiles of Ethiopian HIV patients. Thus, this study compares the mean values of lipid profile differences of HIV patients on ATV/r-based regimen compared to efavirenz (EFV)-based regimen, while the background is Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate/lamivudine.

Materials and Methods

A comparative hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among adult HIV-infected patients at Zewditu Memorial Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from July–September 2017. An equal number of EFV and ATV/r-treated patients (n=90 each) receiving for 1-year and over were included in the study. Serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), gigh-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) were measured. Data comparison used chi-square test, Student’s t-test and Mann–Whitney U-test. Multivariate logistic regression analysis and p-value<0.05 were used to identify associated factors of serum lipid profiles.

Results

In the present study, the ATV/r-treated group results were significantly higher in the median values of TG [207 (56–1094) vs 145 (42–768) mg/dL; p=0.001] and the mean value of TG/HDL-c (6.6 vs 4.4; p=0.001) as compared to the EFV-treated group. The EFV-treated group showed significantly higher in the mean value of HDL-c (44.7 vs 38.7 mg/dL; p=0.001) as compared to the ATV/r-treated group. Body mass index was associate with LDL and HDL. CD4 was associated with TC. Current antiretroviral therapy was associated with TG. Duration of HIV since first diagnosis and duration of ART were associated with HDL.

Conclusion

ATV/r is associated with elevated in TG and TG/HDL-C, but low HDL as compared to EFV. Differences in LDL or HDL that were found were of unclear clinical significance. The long-term significance is unknown.

Metabolic disease in HIV infection

The treatment of metabolic disease is becoming an increasingly important component of the long-term management of patients with well controlled HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Metabolic diseases probably develop at the intersection of traditional risk factors (such as obesity, tobacco use, and genetic predisposition) and HIV-specific and ART-specific contributors (including chronic inflammation and immune activation). This Review discusses present knowledge on adipose tissue dysfunction, insulin-glucose homoeostasis, lipid disturbances, and cardiovascular disease risk in people with HIV on ART. Although new antiretroviral drugs are believed to induce fewer short-term metabolic perturbations than do older drugs, the long-term effects of these drugs are not fully understood. Additionally, patients remain at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other metabolic comorbidities. Research and treatment should focus on selection of ART that is both virologically effective and has minimum metabolic effects, minimisation of traditional risk factors for metabolic disease, and development of novel therapies to treat metabolic disease in patients with HIV, including use of anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory drugs.

Increase in standard cholesterol and large HDL particle subclasses in antiretroviral-naïve patients prescribed efavirenz compared to atazanavir/ritonavir

BACKGROUND

Cardiovascular risk in HIV-infected patients is related, at least in part, to serum lipid alterations before and after HAART. Lipoprotein-particle subclasses may also have an effect, but comparative data after standard HAART regimens are limited.

METHODS

This was a substudy of a trial in 91 antiretroviral-naïve patients randomized to tenofovir + emtricitabine + atazanavir/ritonavir (ATV/r) or efavirenz (EFV). Over-time trends from baseline to week 48 in total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), HDL particles (HDLp), and TC:HDL-C and TG:HDL-C ratios were analyzed by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Furthermore, confidence intervals for differences between the 2 groups at week 48 were calculated. Indications for lipid-lowering interventions and low HDL-C were also studied.

RESULTS

ANCOVA showed that, with respect to patients receiving ATV/r, those prescribed efavirenz (EFV) had greater increases reported as mean differences in lipid values at week 48: 14 mg/dL (95% CI, 0.2 to 27) for TC, 14 mg/dL (95% CI, 4 to 25) for LDL-C, 5 mg/dL (95% CI, 2 to 9) for HDL-C, and 2.2 mg/dL (95% CI, 0.4 to 4) for large HDLp. Proportions of subjects with indications for lipid-lowering interventions and with HDL-C <40 mg/dL did not differ significantly.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients prescribed EFV had greater increases in TC, LDL-C, and HDL-C. Although no significant differences were detected between the 2 groups for the TC:HDL ratio and for indications to start lipid-lowering interventions, large HDLp increased more in the EFV group compared to the ATV/r group, suggesting a protective effect associated with EFV use.

Premature onset of cardiovascular disease in HIV-infected individuals: the drugs and the virus

Life expectancy in HIV-infected individuals has been greatly enhanced through immunologic restoration and virologic suppression resulting from antiretroviral therapy. Current clinical HIV care in Western countries focuses on treatment of drug toxicities and prevention of comorbidities. These non-AIDS HIV-related comorbidities, such as cardiovascular disease, occur even in individuals with virologic suppression and manifest at an earlier age than when normally presenting in the general population. While traditional risk factors are present in many HIV-infected individuals who develop cardiovascular disease, the additional roles of HIV-related chronic inflammation and immune activation as well as chronic HIV viremia may be significant. This review provides current evidence for the contributions of the virus, in terms of both chronic viremia and its contribution via chronic low-level inflammation, immune activation, premature immune senescence and dyslipidemia, to the pathogenesis of HIV-related cardiovascular disease, and balances this against the propensity of specific antiretroviral therapies to cause cardiovascular disease, in particular through altered cholesterol metabolism.