New anti HIV Drug Dolutegravir is Effective at Low Doses and in the Search for a HIV Cure

January 20, 2015 (MMD Newswire) — The new anti-HIV integrase inhibitor Dolutegravir is a highly potent drug not only able to maintain HIV RNA

Alain lafeuillade, a clinical researcher for 20 years in HIV disease, observed that Dolutegravir is highly effective alone in patients without integrase resistance. “Plasma viral load remained undetectable in my patients, and proviral HIV DNA in cells remained stable with only 50 mg 2 to 3 times a week with a mean follow-up of 6 months, Doctor Lafeuillade said. Consequently, he proposed a protocol named “Hypo-Dolu” in HIV-infected patients to determine, in the basence of Integrase inhibitors resistance, the minimal weekly Dolutegravir dose needed. Patients on 2 reverse transcriptase inhibitors plus Dolutegravir 50 mg/day would be switched to Dolutegravir monotherapy for 3 months and then, if plasma viral load remains <50 copies>

“There is barely no risk of resistance selection, Doctor Lafeuillade added, as the only mutation selected rarely by Dolutegravir at the 263 codon of the Integrase gene dramatically impairs HIV fitness, and that is why Dolutegravir is tested in HIV-1 cure trials. Unfortunatelly, ViiV healthcare was not interested by this trial, wanting to sell its drug at the higher dose tested in clinical trials, even if it could be too much.

Dr Lafeuillade will initiate this assay as an institutional trial as he underlined that “in a difficult economic situation it can be useful to spare drugs if only one anti-retroviral -compared to triple-drug therapy-can do the work at lower doses, and it will also spare long-term side effects!”.

Contact: Alain Lafeuillade
Chief of the Department of Infectious Diseases
General Hospital, 54 rue Henri Sainte Claire Deville
83100 Toulon, France
Ph: +33 (4) 94 14 50 84
Email: [email protected]