Antiretroviral Strategies to Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV: Striking a Balance between Efficacy, Feasibility, and Resistance
article has not abstract
Published in the journal:
Antiretroviral Strategies to Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV: Striking a Balance between Efficacy, Feasibility, and Resistance. PLoS Med 6(10): e32767. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000169
Category:
Perspective
doi:
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000169
Summary
article has not abstract
Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV has been both a great success and a continued challenge. Today, in resource-rich countries, new infant infections are a rare event. However, nearly 400,000 infant HIV-1 infections still occur each year in settings in which highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), elective caesarean sections, and safe alternatives to breastfeeding are not readily available. In these settings, various short-course antiretroviral therapies that include a single-dose of nevirapine (sdNVP) are used to prevent transmission to infants [1]. The sdNVP regimen effectively reduces MTCT by close to 50% and is an inexpensive and simple regimen, feasible for use in resource-limited settings [2],[3]. However, resistance to sdNVP arises commonly and quickly and can adversely affect the future treatment of NVP-exposed women [4]–[6]. Ideal alternatives to the sdNVP regimen would reduce the emergence of resistance while preserving efficacy and feasibility.
Alternatives to a Single Dose of NVP to Reduce MTCT
A variety of alternative regimens have efficacy in preventing MTCT in resource-poor settings. These include daily zidovudine (AZT) or zidovudine/lamivudine (AZT/3TC) combinations, short-course HAART, and infant-only prophylaxis [7]. When considering which strategy is most appropriate for use in resource-limited settings, data on transmission rates must be balanced with factors such as resistance, safety, feasibility, and adherence.
Despite the fact that it has been 10 years since sdNVP was shown to be efficacious, only about 10%–30% of pregnant women who need sdNVP in resource-poor settings have access to this affordable and simple regimen [3],[8]. This fact alone suggests that more complex regimens, including short-course HAART, may not be as rapidly scaleable for preventing MTCT, despite their superiority to sdNVP in preventing transmission and resistance [9],[10]. The approach of infant-only treatment, while avoiding resistance in the mother [11], is unable to prevent the transmissions that occur in utero or intrapartum, and does not avoid resistance in infants that do become infected. Thus, there is a compelling need for a regimen that approaches the simplicity of sdNVP while minimizing resistance.
A Postpartum “Tail” of Antiretrovirals Reduces Resistance Following sdNVP
As described in a paper in this issue of PLoS Medicine, Martinson et al. conducted a randomized trial to determine whether adding up to a week of twice-daily AZT/3TC to sdNVP would reduce the risk of resistance in mothers and infants [12]. The addition of AZT and 3TC (half-lives 1–2 h and 5–7 h, respectively) decreases the amount of time that NVP (half-life 45 h) would be present alone, potentially limiting selection pressure for resistance to emerge. At 6 wk postpartum, drug resistance in both mothers and infants was reduced by over 80% in the sdNVP plus AZT/3TC arms, compared to sdNVP alone. In addition, at 2 wk postpartum, viral loads were lower in the women on combination treatment compared to those who received sdNVP alone, which may also have contributed to the observed reduction in resistance. Not only did the overall percentage of women and children with resistance decrease, but following sdNVP plus the “tail” of AZT/3TC, fewer acquired multiple mutations and resistance appeared to fade more quickly.
These data have already had a global impact. Preliminary analysis of the data from this research study was presented at the Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment in 2005, and motivated a change in the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for preventing MTCT in resource-limited settings [1],[13]. Before these results were available, sdNVP alone was the standard treatment recommended by the WHO, despite the well-known risk of resistance. It was simply the most feasible regimen at the time. Today, the current WHO recommended regimen (AZT antepartum, sdNVP plus AZT/3TC intrapartum, followed by AZT/3TC for 7 d postpartum) is based on the results presented by Martinson, et al. as well as a subsequent study that showed similar findings [1],[14]. More recent data suggest that even simpler tail regimens may be possible [15].
Some important questions remain. The tail combination regimens provide a shorter duration of single drug selection pressure compared to sdNVP alone, and result in a reduced prevalence of drug resistance mutations that are detected by the population-sequencing assays used. However, the addition of a 1-wk tail may not be enough to completely eliminate NVP selection pressure, and it remains possible that resistant virus still arises, but only at low levels because of the more limited period of selection. Whether low-level resistance arises following these regimens, and whether it has clinical relevance, remains unclear and requires testing with more sensitive drug resistance assays [6].
Assuming that there is not a large amount of lurking resistance that is below the detection limit of the assays used in the study presented, the approach of sdNVP plus AZT/3TC to prevent MTCT may strike the right balance of a feasible regimen that minimizes resistance in settings where HAART remains to be implemented.
Linked Research Article
This Perspective discusses the following new study published in PLoS Medicine:
McIntyre JA, Hopley M, Moodley D, Eklund M, Gray GE, et al. (2009) Efficacy of Short-Course AZT Plus 3TC to Reduce Nevirapine Resistance in the Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission: A Randomized Clinical Trial. PLoS Med 6(10): e1000172. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000172
Zdroje
1. World Health Organization 2006 Antiretroviral drugs for treating pregnant women and preventing HIV infection in infant: towards universal access. Recommendations for a public health approach. Available: http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/guidelines/pmtctguidelines3.pdf. Accessed 4 September 2009
2. GuayLA
MusokeP
FlemingT
BagendaD
AllenM
1999 Intrapartum and neonatal single-dose nevirapine compared with zidovudine for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 in Kampala, Uganda: HIVNET 012 randomised trial. Lancet 354 795 802
3. ArriveE
DabisF
2008 Prophylactic antiretroviral regimens for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in resource-limited settings. Curr Opin HIV AIDS 3 161 165
4. JourdainG
Ngo-Giang-HuongN
Le CoeurS
BowonwatanuwongC
KantipongP
2004 Intrapartum exposure to nevirapine and subsequent maternal responses to nevirapine-based antiretroviral therapy. N Engl J Med 351 229 240
5. LockmanS
ShapiroRL
SmeatonLM
WesterC
ThiorI
2007 Response to antiretroviral therapy after a single, peripartum dose of nevirapine. N Engl J Med 356 135 147
6. LockmanS
2008 Prevention of mother-to-child transmission, drug resistance, and implications for response to therapy. Curr Opin HIV AIDS 3 166 172
7. DaoH
MofensonLM
EkpiniR
GilksCF
BarnhartM
2007 International recommendations on antiretroviral drugs for treatment of HIV-infected women and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in resource-limited settings: 2006 update. Am J Obstet Gynecol 197 S42 S55
8. World Health Organization, UNAIDS, Unicef 2008 Towards universal access. Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector. Available: http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/2008progressreport/en/. Accessed 4 September 2009
9. KilewoC
KarlssonK
NgarinaM
MassaweA
LyamuyaE
2009 Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 through breastfeeding by treating mothers with triple antiretroviral therapy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: the Mitra Plus Study. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr In press
10. LehmanDA
ChungMH
MabukaJM
John-StewartGC
KiarieJ
2009 Lower risk of resistance after short-course HAART compared with zidovudine/single-dose nevirapine used for prevention of HIV-1 mother-to-child transmission. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 51 522 529
11. EshlemanSH
HooverDR
HudelsonSE
ChenS
FiscusSA
2006 Development of nevirapine resistance in infants is reduced by use of infant-only single-dose nevirapine plus zidovudine postexposure prophylaxis for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1. J Infect Dis 193 479 481
12. McIntyreJA
HopleyM
MoodleyD
EklundM
GrayGE
2009 Efficacy of short-course AZT+3TC to reduce nevirapine resistance in the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission. PLoS Med 6 e1000172 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000172
13. McIntyreJ
MartinsonN
GrayG
HopleyM
KimuraT
2005 Addition of short course Combivir (CBV) to single dose Viramune (sdNVP) for the prevention of mother to child transmission (pMTCT) of HIV-1 can significantly decrease the subsequent development of maternal and paediatric NNRTI-resistant virus TuFo0204. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Aids Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment; 24–27 July, 2005; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Available: http://www.iasociety.org/Default.aspx?pageId=11&abstractId=2176901. Accessed 4 September 2009
14. ChaixML
EkoueviDK
RouetF
Tonwe-GoldB
VihoI
2006 Low risk of nevirapine resistance mutations in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1: Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le SIDA Ditrame Plus, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. J Infect Dis 193 482 487
15. ChiBH
SinkalaM
MbeweF
CantrellRA
KruseG
2007 Single-dose tenofovir and emtricitabine for reduction of viral resistance to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor drugs in women given intrapartum nevirapine for perinatal HIV prevention: an open-label randomised trial. Lancet 370 1698 1705
Štítky
Interné lekárstvoČlánok vyšiel v časopise
PLOS Medicine
2009 Číslo 10
- Statinová intolerance
- Očkování proti virové hemoragické horečce Ebola experimentální vakcínou rVSVDG-ZEBOV-GP
- Co dělat při intoleranci statinů?
- Pleiotropní účinky statinů na kardiovaskulární systém
- DESATORO PRE PRAX: Aktuálne odporúčanie ESPEN pre nutričný manažment u pacientov s COVID-19
Najčítanejšie v tomto čísle
- Five Years of Access and Activism
- Packages of Care for Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Series
- Lost but Not Forgotten—The Economics of Improving Patient Retention in AIDS Treatment Programs
- Antiretroviral Strategies to Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV: Striking a Balance between Efficacy, Feasibility, and Resistance