Treatment Strategy: Role of Enfuvirtide in Managing Treatment-Limiting Side Effects

Side effects can limit the options available to physicians for the treatment of HIV infection. Management of these side effects is essential, to avoid cessation of treatment. The entry inhibitor enfuvirtide can be useful as one of three active agents in an HIV treatment regimen as a way to both reduce treatment-limiting side effects and provide an efficacious agent for viral control. In the present case, the patient had a problematic and lengthy treatment history, with numerous concomitant conditions. His latest regimen, which includes an agent in a new drug class (enfuvirtide), has maintained HIV suppression while minimizing toxicity

Improvements in Immune Function and Activation with 48-Week Darunavir/Ritonavir-Based Therapy: GRACE Substudy

Objective. During the course of HIV infection, progressive immune deficiency occurs. The aim of this prospective substudy was to evaluate the recovery of functional immunity in a subset of patients from the GRACE (Gender, Race, And Clinical Experience) study treated with a DRV/r-based regimen. Methods. The recovery of functional immunity with a darunavir/ritonavir-based regimen was assessed in a subset of treatment-experienced, HIV-1 infected patients from the GRACE study. Results. 19/32 patients (59%) enrolled in the substudy were virologically suppressed (&lt;50 copies/mL). In these patients, median (range) CD4+ cell count increased from 222 (2, 398) cells/mm3 at baseline to 398 (119, 812) cells/mm3 at Week 48. CD8+% decreased significantly from baseline to Week 48 (P=.03). Proliferation of CD4+ lymphocytes in response to CD3+/CD28+, phytohemagglutinin, and pokeweed was significantly increased (P&lt;.01) by Week 12. Proliferation in response to Candida and tetanus was significantly increased by Week 48 (P&lt;.01 and P=.014, resp.). Staphylococcal enterotoxin B-stimulated tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-2 in CD4+ cells was significantly increased by Week 12 (P=.046) and Week 48 (P&lt;.01), respectively. Conclusions. Darunavir/ritonavir-based therapy demonstrated improvements in CD4+ cell recovery and association with progressive functional immune recovery over 48 weeks. This trial is registered with NCT00381303.</jats:p

Prescribing and using self-injectable antiretrovirals: How concordant are physician and patient perspectives?

The selection of agents for any treatment regimen is in part influenced by physician and patient attitudes. This study investigated attitudinal motivators and barriers to the use of self-injectable antiretroviral agents among physicians and patients and measured the degree of concordance between physician and patient perspectives

Resources, Capabilities, and Routines in Public Organizations

States, state agencies, multilateral agencies, and other non-market actors are relatively under-studied in strategic management and organization science. While important contributions to the study of public actors have been made within the agency-theoretic and transaction-cost traditions, there is little research in political economy that builds on resource-based, dynamic capabilities, and behavioral approaches to the firm. Yet public organizations can be characterized as stocks of human and non-human resources, including routines and capabilities; they can possess excess capacity in these resources; and they may grow and diversify in predictable patterns according to behavioral and Penrosean logic. This paper shows how resource-based, dynamic capabilities, and behavioral approaches to understanding public agencies and organizations shed light on their nature and governance

Immune correlates of CD4 decline in HIV-infected patients experiencing virologic failure before undergoing treatment interruption

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The advantage of treatment interruptions (TIs) in salvage therapy remains controversial. Regardless, characterizations of the correlates of CD4 count fall during TI are important to identify since patients with virologic failure commonly stop antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. The objective of this study was to determine the predictive value of pre-TI proliferative capacity and cell surface markers for CD4 count change in HIV-infected patients experiencing virologic failure before undergoing TI.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 13 HIV-infected patients experiencing virologic failure at baseline time points before the TI were tested for proliferation using the 5,6-carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) dilution assay and a Gag p55 peptide pool, staphylococcus enterotoxin B (SEB), cytomegalovirus (CMV) recall antigen, and anti-CD3 antibody as stimuli. CD28 and CD57 expression on CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells was measured.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The median changes in the CD4+ T-cell count and viral load from baseline to the TI time point corresponding to the CD4 count nadir were -44 cells/mm³{Interquartile range (IQR) -17, -104} and +85,332 copies/mL (IQR +11,198, +283,327), respectively. CD4+ T-cell proliferation to CMV, pre-TI CD4+ T-cell count, and percent CD4+CD57+ cells correlated negatively with CD4 count change during TI (r = -0.59, p = 0.045, r = -0.61, p = 0.030 and r = -0.69, p = 0.0095, respectively; Spearman correlation). The presence of HIV-specific proliferative responses was not associated with a reduced decline in CD4 count during TI.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The use of pre-TI immune proliferative responses and cell surface markers may have predictive value for CD4 count decline during TI.</p

Treatment Strategy: Role of Enfuvirtide in Managing Treatment-Limiting Side Effects

Side effects can limit the options available to physicians for the treatment of HIV infection. Management of these side effects is essential, to avoid cessation of treatment. The entry inhibitor enfuvirtide can be useful as one of three active agents in an HIV treatment regimen as a way to both reduce treatment-limiting side effects and provide an efficacious agent for viral control. In the present case, the patient had a problematic and lengthy treatment history, with numerous concomitant conditions. His latest regimen, which includes an agent in a new drug class (enfuvirtide), has maintained HIV suppression while minimizing toxicity

Treatment Strategy: Role of Enfuvirtide in Managing Treatment-Limiting Side Effects

Side effects can limit the options available to physicians for the treatment of HIV infection. Management of these side effects is essential, to avoid cessation of treatment. The entry inhibitor enfuvirtide can be useful as one of three active agents in an HIV treatment regimen as a way to both reduce treatment-limiting side effects and provide an efficacious agent for viral control. In the present case, the patient had a problematic and lengthy treatment history, with numerous concomitant conditions. His latest regimen, which includes an agent in a new drug class (enfuvirtide), has maintained HIV suppression while minimizing toxicity.</jats:p

A Paradigm Shift in Providing Care for the HIV/AIDS Patient

The authors report on a detailed cost study of HIV-infected patients receiving treatment at the McGill medical facilities. The results indicated that a home care setting is a cost-efficient site in which to care for an AIDS patient, with care provided in other settings when required. As the number of people with AIDS increases, efforts are needed to develop alternative care services for those infected with the virus. What is required would seem to be a service delivery system which would ensure cost-effective continuity of care across a continuum of services geared to varying levels of independence and illness severity. </jats:p