The CNS serves as an important sanctuary site for HIV replication. The presence of HIV in this compartment may contribute to neurological complications in individuals infected with HIV. Understanding the CNS penetration capabilities of available antiretroviral agents may help clinicians to design treatment regimens with neuroprotective effects. Although numerous clinical studies and anecdotal reports have examined CSF antiretroviral drug exposure as a marker of CNS penetration, understanding the clinical relevance of these findings is difficult. Challenges with study design and subject recruitment often limit the investigator's ability to collect comprehensive data. Upon review of available data, the antiretroviral agents zidovudine, stavudine, lamivudine, nevirapine, efavirenz and indinavir demonstrate consistent penetration into the CSF. Zidovudine-, stavudine-, lamivudine-, didanosine- and protease inhibitor-based regimens also appear to suppress CSF viraemia or improve HIV neurological disease. These agents may be appropriate candidates for neuroprotective antiretroviral treatment regimens. Despite these data, several unanswered questions about the CSF antiretroviral drug exposure-response relationship still remain. Prospective, controlled studies examining this relationship are needed before absolute clinical recommendations are founded.
Combination antiretroviral therapy with two or more protease inhibitors has become the standard of care in the treatment of HIV infection. Dual protein inhibitor (PI) regimens, such as lopinavir/ritonavir, are commonly used as initial PI therapy. As viral resistance increases and the development of mechanistically novel protease inhibitors decreases, clinicians turn to ritonavir-enhanced dual PI therapy to treat salvage patients. Potency of these combination regimens is increased while pill burden, food restrictions and often, side effects are decreased. These clinical advantages result from the enhancement of their pharmacological properties, including alterations in the absorption and metabolism process. Alterations in the absorption and metabolism of protease inhibitors when co-administered with a cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme inhibitor, such as low dose ritonavir, are reflected by impressive changes in pharmacokinetic parameters. For example, the addition of ritonavir 100 or 200 mg to saquinavir 1200-1800 mg has been shown to increase saquinavir area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) by approximately 300-800% compared with saquinavir alone. The ability of ritonavir to increase plasma trough concentrations (C(min)) of concomitantly administered PIs is perhaps the greatest clinical benefit of dual or ritonavir-enhanced dual PI therapy since inadequate concentrations of antiretrovirals may support long term antiretroviral resistance. For example, lopinavir 400mg alone in healthy volunteers produced plasma concentrations that briefly exceeded the concentration required to inhibit 50% of viral replication (IC(50)). Yet, when low doses of ritonavir were added, C(min) values were 50- to 100-fold greater than the concentration required to produce 50% of the maximum effect for wild-type HIV (EC(50)). The following manuscript will discuss the rationale for combining protease inhibitors and will review pertinent pharmacokinetic and clinical data on these combination regimens.
The objective of this study was to determine the effects of double-strength grapefruit juice on gastric pH and systemic bioavailability of indinavir in HIV-infected subjects receiving indinavir. Fourteen HIV-infected subjects took 800 mg of indinavir with 6 ounces (180 ml) of water or double-strength grapefruit juice. Gastric pH was measured and blood samples were collected for 5 hours after indinavir dosing. Grapefruit juice increased the mean gastric pH (from 1.39 +/- 0.4 to 3.20 +/- 0.3; p < 0.05) and slightly delayed the absorption of indinavir (tmax increased from 1.12 +/- 0.8 h to 1.56 +/- 0.6 h; p < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in indinavir exposure. Cmax was 16.7 +/- 7.3 microM with water versus 13.9 +/- 4.2 microM with grapefruit juice (p = NS), and AUC0-8 was 37.5 +/- 19 with water versus 36.9 +/- 15 with grapefruit juice (p = NS). The authors concluded that concomitant administration of grapefruit juice increases gastric pH and delays indinavir absorption but does not uniformly affect the systemic bioavailability of indinavir in HIV-infected subjects.
Combination ARV therapy is the current standard of care for treating patients infected with HIV. It is important for providers to consider that, despite much improved pharmacokinetic profiles associated with pharmacokinetically enhanced protease inhibitor regimens, there may be undesirable effects that may differ in frequency or severity than when drugs are used individually.
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