The interaction between artemether-lumefantrine and lopinavir/ritonavir-based antiretroviral therapy in HIV-1 infected patients.

ABSTRACT: Artemether-lumefantrine is currently the most widely recommended treatment of uncomplicated malaria. Lopinavir-based antiretroviral therapy is the commonly recommended second-line HIV treatment. Artemether and lumefantrine are metabolised by cytochrome P450 isoenzyme CYP3A4, which lopinavir/ritonavir inhibits, potentially causing clinically important drug-drug interactions.An adaptive, parallel-design safety and pharmacokinetic study was conducted in HIV-infected (malaria-negative) patients: antiretroviral-naïve and those stable on lopinavir/ritonavir-based antiretrovirals. Both groups received the recommended six-dose artemether-lumefantrine treatment. The primary outcome was day-7 lumefantrine concentrations, as these correlate with antimalarial efficacy. Adverse events were solicited throughout the study, recording the onset, duration, severity, and relationship to artemether-lumefantrine.We enrolled 34 patients. Median day-7 lumefantrine concentrations were almost 10-fold higher in the lopinavir than the antiretroviral-naïve group [3170 versus 336 ng/mL; p?=?0.0001], with AUC(0-inf) and Cmax increased five-fold [2478 versus 445 ?g.h/mL; p?=?0.0001], and three-fold [28.2 versus 8.8 ?g/mL; p?

SUBMITTER: Kredo T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4728832 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature