Current HIV Research - Volume 13, Issue 3, 2015

Background: Atazanavir/ritonavir (ATV/r) recently became the preferred protease inhibitor (PI) for use in Nigeria since it is dosed once daily, which may improve treatment adherence and has fewer side effects than lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) - the most widely available PI in resource-limited settings. We, therefore, aimed to evaluate the immunologic and virologic effects of switching patients to an ATV/r-containing regimen. M Read More

Background: Retention in care and treatment services is critical to health outcomes of individuals diagnosed and living with HIV. We evaluated the incidence of and risk factors for treatment discontinuation (TD) in a large adult HIV population on ART in Nigeria. Method: A retrospective cohort study of adult HIV patients initiated on first-line ART between 2004 and 2011 at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) in Nigeria. Foll Read More

Objective: Since 2010, Nigeria has adopted World Health Organization (WHO) ‘Option B’ which requires administration of triple antiretroviral prophylaxis or treatment (ART) to all HIVinfected pregnant women. We studied the transmission outcomes of HIV-exposed children up to 18 months of age. Design: This was a retrospective, observational study of HIV-infected pregnant women and their exposed infants who accessed p Read More

Background: The 2013 WHO guidelines incorporated simplified and more effective antiretroviral regimens for the purposes of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. With ideal implementation of these recommendations, perinatal HIV transmission could be reduced to less than 2%. However, loss to follow-up (LTFU) has the potential to erode the success of programs and a number of studies report high rates of LTFU Read More

Introduction: High levels of adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and retention in treatment programs are required for successful virologic suppression and treatment outcomes. While there have been numerous studies focusing on adherence and loss to follow-up (LTFU) in adults, studies in children and young adolescents are limited. For this study, we examined patterns of adherence and LTFU in HIV-infected pedia Read More

Objective: There is scarce information about the molecular epidemiology of HIV-infection in Armenia (former USSR). The objective of this work was to estimate the distribution of HIV-1 subtypes in this country and get any information about HIV drug resistance in naÏve patients. Design: A joint study involving 78 patients was carried out in Yerevan, Armenia and Moscow, Russia in 2009-2013. The cohort studies included mostly ID Read More

We have previously shown that soluble HIV-1 Tat protein down regulates surface expression of the interleukin (IL)-7 receptor alpha-chain (CD127) on human CD8 T cells resulting in impaired T cell proliferation and cytolytic capacity. Once taken up by CD8 T cells, Tat translocates to the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane where it interacts with the cytoplasmic tail of CD127 inducing receptor internalization and degradation Read More

The efficacy of combination therapy (antiretroviral therapy - ARV) is demonstrated by the high rates of viral suppression achieved in most treated HIV patients. Whereas contemporary treatments may continuously suppress HIV replication, they do not eliminate the latent reservoir, which can reactivate HIV infection if ARV is discontinued. The persistence of HIV proviral DNA and infectious viruses in CD4+ T cells and others cell Read More