Conference News

A CD4 count below 350 more than doubled the risk of serious non-AIDS diseases in HIV-positive people who had not begun antiretroviral therapy [1]. Viral load in untreated people did not appear to affect risk of non-AIDS diseases in this 13,000-person ATHENA cohort analysis in the Netherlands.

Research has linked certain non-AIDS diseases to low CD4 count or high viral load in people taking antiretroviral therapy. But little is known about the impact of CD4 count and viral load on these morbidities in HIV-positive people who have yet to start antiretrovirals. To address these questions, ATHENA cohort investigators conducted this study of antiretroviral-naive cohort members.

A second-line antiretroviral regimen of lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra/Aluvia) and raltegravir (Isentress) proved just as effective as a regimen containing lopinavir/ritonavir and two or three nucleoside or nucleotide analogues in large study conducted in Australia, Africa, Latin America and Asia, researchers from Sydney’s Kirby Institute reported this week at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2013) in Atlanta.

The study was designed to test whether the two-drug regimen offered a viable alternative to the current World Health Organization recommendation that second-line antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings should consist of ritonavir-boosted lopinavir or atazanavir, plus two nucleoside or nucleotide analogues, which may be recycled from the failing first-line regimen.

Very early antiretroviral treatment may limit the size of the HIV reservoir in adults and children, according to studies presented on 4 March at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Atlanta.

Other research presented at the meeting suggests that too little is known about either the size or the cell types that constitute the HIV reservoir to be confident that early assessments will be a reliable guide to the potential for viral eradication.

Glasgow, UK - ViiV Healthcare today announced 24-week data from the VIKING-3 Phase III study evaluating the investigational integrase inhibitor (INI) dolutegravir in HIV-1 infected adults with multiple class antiretroviral (ARV) resistance including resistance to integrase inhibitors (raltegravir and/or elvitegravir). In the study, mean HIV RNA levels declined by 1.4 log10 copies/mL after 7 days of dolutegravir 50mg twice-daily treatment was added to the current failing regimen [95% confidence interval for the difference (1.3, 1.5; p<0.001)].

GLASGOW — As treatment options are exhausted in the coming years, a substantial difference in life expectancy between people living with HIV and the general population is expected —particularly for those with HIV acquired at a younger age or for those who are highly treatment-experienced, according to presenter James Jansson, research assistant in the surveillance and evaluation program of public health at The Kirby Institute in Australia.