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BACKGROUND Treatment of Plasmodium vivax malaria requires the clearing of asexual parasites, but relapse can be prevented only if dormant hypnozoites are cleared from the liver (a treatment termed “radical cure”). Tafenoquine is a single-dose 8-aminoquinoline that has recently been registered for the radical cure of P. vivax . METHODS This multicenter, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel group, randomized, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in Ethiopia, Peru, Brazil, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines. We enrolled 522 patients with microscopically confirmed P. vivax infection (>100 to <100,000 parasites per microliter) and normal glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity (with normal activity defined as ≥70% of the median value determined at each trial site among 36 healthy male volunteers who were otherwise not involved in the trial). All patients received a 3-day course of chloroquine (total dose of 1500 mg). In addition, patients were assigned to receive a single 300-mg dose of tafenoquine on day 1 or 2 (260 patients), placebo (133 patients), or a 15-mg dose of prima-quine once daily for 14 days (129 patients). The primary outcome was the Kaplan– Meier estimated percentage of patients who were free from recurrence at 6 months, defined as P. vivax clearance without recurrent parasitemia. RESULTS In the intention-to-treat population, the percentage of patients who were free from recurrence at 6 months was 62.4% in the tafenoquine group (95% confidence interval [CI], 54.9 to 69.0), 27.7% in the placebo group (95% CI, 19.6 to 36.6), and 69.6% in the primaquine group (95% CI, 60.2 to 77.1). The hazard ratio for the risk of recurrence was 0.30 (95% CI, 0.22 to 0.40) with tafenoquine as compared with placebo (P<0.001) and 0.26 (95% CI, 0.18 to 0.39) with primaquine as compared with placebo (P<0.001). Tafenoquine was associated with asymptomatic declines in hemoglobin levels, which resolved without intervention. CONCLUSIONS Single-dose tafenoquine resulted in a significantly lower risk of P. vivax recurrence than placebo in patients with phenotypically normal G6PD activity. (Funded by GlaxoSmith-Kline and Medicines for Malaria Venture; DETECTIVE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01376167.)

BACKGROUND Tafenoquine, a single-dose therapy for Plasmodium vivax malaria, has been associated with relapse prevention through the clearance of P. vivax parasitemia and hypnozoites, termed “radical cure.” METHODS We performed a phase 3, prospective, double-blind, double-dummy, randomized, controlled trial to compare tafenoquine with primaquine in terms of safety and efficacy. The trial was conducted at seven hospitals or clinics in Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam, and Thailand and involved patients with normal glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) enzyme activity and female patients with moderate G6PD enzyme deficiency; all patients had confirmed P. vivax parasitemia. The patients were randomly assigned, in a 2:1 ratio, to receive a single 300-mg dose of tafenoquine or 15 mg of primaquine once daily for 14 days (administered under supervision); all patients received a 3-day course of chloroquine and were followed for 180 days. The primary safety outcome was a protocol-defined decrease in the hemoglobin level (>3.0 g per deciliter or ≥30% from baseline or to a level of <6.0 g per deciliter). Freedom from recurrence of P. vivax parasitemia at 6 months was the primary efficacy outcome in a planned patient-level meta-analysis of the current trial and another phase 3 trial of tafenoquine and primaquine (per-protocol populations), and an odds ratio for recurrence of 1.45 (tafenoquine vs. primaquine) was used as a noninferiority margin. RESULTS A protocol-defined decrease in the hemoglobin level occurred in 4 of 166 patients (2.4%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.9 to 6.0) in the tafenoquine group and in 1 of 85 patients (1.2%; 95% CI, 0.2 to 6.4) in the primaquine group, for a between-group difference of 1.2 percentage points (95% CI, −4.2 to 5.0). In the patient-level meta-analysis, the percentage of patients who were free from recurrence at 6 months was 67.0% (95% CI, 61.0 to 72.3) among the 426 patients in the tafenoquine group and 72.8% (95% CI, 65.6 to 78.8) among the 214 patients in the primaquine group. The efficacy of tafenoquine was not shown to be noninferior to that of primaquine (odds ratio for recurrence, 1.81; 95% CI, 0.82 to 3.96). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with normal G6PD enzyme activity, the decline in hemoglobin level with tafenoquine did not differ significantly from that with primaquine. Tafenoquine showed efficacy for the radical cure of P. vivax malaria, although tafenoquine was not shown to be noninferior to primaquine. (Funded by GlaxoSmithKline and Medicines for Malaria Venture; GATHER ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02216123.)

Abstract.Tafenoquine is an 8-aminoquinoline under investigation for the prevention of relapse in Plasmodium vivax malaria. This open-label, dose-escalation study assessed quantitatively the hemolytic risk with tafenoquine in female healthy volunteers heterozygous for the Mahidol487A glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-deficient variant versus G6PD-normal females, and with reference to primaquine. Six G6PD-heterozygous subjects (G6PD enzyme activity 40–60% of normal) and six G6PD-normal subjects per treatment group received single-dose tafenoquine (100, 200, or 300 mg) or primaquine (15 mg × 14 days). All participants had pretreatment hemoglobin levels ≥ 12.0 g/dL. Tafenoquine dose escalation stopped when hemoglobin decreased by ≥ 2.5 g/dL (or hematocrit decline ≥ 7.5%) versus pretreatment values in ≥ 3/6 subjects. A dose–response was evident in G6PD-heterozygous subjects (N = 15) receiving tafenoquine for the maximum decrease in hemoglobin versus pretreatment values. Hemoglobin declines were similar for tafenoquine 300 mg (−2.65 to −2.95 g/dL [N = 3]) and primaquine (−1.25 to −3.0 g/dL [N = 5]). Two further cohorts of G6PD-heterozygous subjects with G6PD enzyme levels 61–80% (N = 2) and > 80% (N = 5) of the site median normal received tafenoquine 200 mg; hemolysis was less pronounced at higher G6PD enzyme activities. Tafenoquine hemolytic potential was dose dependent, and hemolysis was greater in G6PD-heterozygous females with lower G6PD enzyme activity levels. Single-dose tafenoquine 300 mg did not appear to increase the severity of hemolysis versus primaquine 15 mg × 14 days.

After ART, both CD31(+) and CD31⁻ naive CD4(+) T cells expand, and both subsets represent a stable, persistent reservoir of HIV-1.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb) kills approximately 2 million people each year. MTb must drive host tissue destruction to disseminate and also to cause pulmonary cavitation. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9, gelatinase B) is implicated in this Tb-related immunopathology. We demonstrate that conditioned media from MTb-infected monocytes (CoMTb), but not direct infection with MTb, up-regulates MMP-9 gene expression and secretion from primary human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBE). MMP-9 secretion was increased 8.7-fold by CoMTb (P < 0.05) as assayed by gelatin zymography. A549 and 16HBE14o epithelial cell MMP secretion was significantly less than primary NHBE secretion. MMP-9 secretion was decreased 53.2% by inhibition of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) by SB203580 (P < 0.01) and 48.3% by inhibition of extracellular signal-regulated kinase with PD98059 (P < 0.05). MMP-9 secretion was prostaglandin independent. TNF-alpha was necessary but not sufficient for MMP-9 up-regulation by the monocyte-epithelial cell network. Soluble factors derived from Tb culture synergized with TNF-alpha to increase MMP-9 secretion by NHBE 6-fold (P < 0.01 compared with either stimulus alone). Together, these data reveal a new mechanism by which host- and pathogen-derived factors act together in MTb infection to drive MAPK-dependent MMP-9 secretion from respiratory epithelial cells.

BackgroundTafenoquine (TQ) and primaquine (PQ) are 8-aminoquinolines (8-AQ) with anti-hypnozoite activity against vivax malaria. PQ is the only FDA-approved medicine for preventing relapsing Plasmodium vivax infection and TQ is currently in phase 3 clinical trials for the same indication. Recent studies have provided evidence that cytochrome P450 (CYP) metabolism via CYP2D6 plays a role in PQ efficacy against P. vivax and have suggested that this effect may extend to other 8-AQs, including TQ. Here, a retrospective pharmacogenetic (PGx) investigation was performed to assess the impact of CYP2D6 metabolism on TQ and PQ efficacy in the treatment of P. vivax in the DETECTIVE study (TAF112582), a recently completed, randomized, phase 2b dose-ranging clinical trial. The impact of CYP2D6 on TQ pharmacokinetics (PK) was also investigated in TAF112582 TQ-treated subjects and in vitro CYP metabolism of TQ was explored. A limitation of the current study is that TAF112582 was not designed to be well powered for PGx, thus our findings are based on TQ or PQ efficacy in CYP2D6 intermediate metabolizers (IM), as there were insufficient poor metabolizers (PM) to draw any conclusion on the impact of the PM phenotype on efficacy.MethodsThe impact of genetically-predicted CYP2D6 reduced metabolism on relapse-free efficacy six months post-dosing of TQ or PQ, both administered in conjunction with chloroquine (CQ), was assessed using exact statistical methods in 198 P. vivax-infected study participants comparing IM to extensive metabolizers (EM). The influence of CYP2D6 metabolizer phenotypes on TQ PK was assessed comparing median TQ area under the curve (AUC). In vitro metabolism of TQ was investigated using recombinant, over-expressed human CYP enzymes and human hepatocytes. Metabolite identification experiments were performed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.ResultsReduction of CYP2D6 activity was not associated with an increase in relapse-rate in TQ-treated subjects (p = 0.57). In contrast, and in accordance with recent literature, CYP2D6 IMs were more common (p = 0.05) in PQ-treated subjects who relapsed (50 %) than in subjects who remained relapse-free (17 %). Further, CYP2D6 metabolizer phenotypes had no significant effect on TQ AUC, and only minimal metabolism of TQ could be detected in hepatic in vitro systems.ConclusionTogether, these data provide preliminary evidence that in CYP2D6 IMs, TQ efficacy in P. vivax-infected individuals is not diminished to the same extent as PQ. As there were no PMs in either the TQ or PQ treatment arms of TAF112582, no conclusions could be drawn on potential differences in PMs. These findings suggest that differential effects of CYP2D6 metabolism on TQ and PQ efficacy could be a differentiation factor between these 8-AQs, but results remain to be confirmed prospectively in the ongoing phase 3 studies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-016-1145-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.