Anderson tests, shares research on HIV prevention drug
Working in the Colorado Antiviral Pharmacology Laboratory at the CU School of Pharmacy, Anderson and his colleagues developed a way to test the effectiveness of the drug, Truvada (a combination of tenofovir/emtricitabine). It is taken once daily to prevent HIV infection.
The research findings were presented last month during the AIDS 2014 Conference. And the work also was published in Lancet Infectious Diseases on the efficacy and safety of prophylactic use of Truvada to protect against HIV infection.
The test developed at CU measures the amount of tenofovir-diphosphate (a metabolite of tenofovir) in red blood cells, using a dried blood spot. Because of a long half-life, high amounts of the metabolite in the dried blood spot correspond with consistent dosing of Truvada and low amounts correspond with inconsistent dosing.
The new test showed a continuous gradient of increasing efficacy (fewer HIV infections) with increasing drug concentrations.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued guidelines recommending the use of antiretroviral medicines as an additional method of preventing HIV infection.