New HIV drug formulation could improve treatment outcomes for children worldwide

Worldwide CU Anschutz researchers helped evaluate a new drug formulation for children with HIV

2023-08-03

(Press-News.org) Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have helped confirm the dosing, safety and effectiveness of a drug formulation designed for treating children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

The study was published today in The Lancet HIV and reveals a new dispersible formulation and an immediate-release tablet containing three medications - dolutegravir, abacavir and lamivudine - in a single fixed dose combination (FDC) formulation is safe, well tolerated, and effective for treating children with HIV. The dosing based on the concentrations of each medication in the blood was also appropriate.

“This is the first FDC containing dolutegravir that can be used for children from 13 to 88 pounds,” said Kristina Brooks, PharmD, an assistant professor in the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at CU Anschutz. “HIV treatment in children has historically been challenging as it requires the use of multiple tablets and liquids that don’t always taste the best, and can be challenging to administer.”

Dolutegravir, abacavir and lamivudine have been shown to be safe and effective worldwide to treat HIV. Brooks and Jennifer Kiser, PharmD, PhD, worked with a team of investigators through the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) Network to look at both an existing immediate release tablet and a new formulation of dispersible release tablets containing all three drugs to see if it would yield the same positive results they have seen in adults and adolescents.

“57 children were enrolled across five weight bands in four countries, of which 54 children used the new combination over 24 weeks. In 98 percent of the participants who continued the study drug, the amount of HIV in the blood remained suppressed below 200 copies/mL at week 24. The safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of these formulations look very positive,” Brooks said.

Child-friendly FDC formulations for HIV are limited. Brooks said this new formulation could help enable continuity of treatment, improve treatment outcomes and make it easier for caregivers responsible for dispensing the drugs. This study also helped support recent labeling updates by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand the use of this formulation to children aged at least 3 months and weighing at least 13 pounds.

There are currently two million children living with HIV across the globe. Only 52 percent are on therapy, and despite making up only four percent of the worldwide HIV population, children account for 15 percent of AIDS-related deaths. Studies like this are vital to improve these outcomes and to make medication more accessible around the world.

“We must continue to pursue child-friendly treatment options to overcome the current global disparity in treatment outcomes between children and adults,” Brooks said.

Some of the children who were in the initial trial are still on the new drug formulation through an open access program. The longer-term safety, tolerability, and effectiveness through 12 months of treatment is under analysis now and will be reported separately.

About the IMPAACT Network

Overall support for the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network (IMPAACT) was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) with co-funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), all components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under Award Numbers UM1AI068632-15 (IMPAACT LOC), UM1AI068616-15 (IMPAACT SDMC) and UM1AI106716-15 (IMPAACT LC), and by NICHD contract number HHSN275201800001I. Additional funding support and study product was provided by ViiV Healthcare.

About the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is a world-class medical destination at the forefront of transformative science, medicine, education and patient care. The campus encompasses the University of Colorado health professional schools, more than 60 centers and institutes, and two nationally ranked independent hospitals - UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and Children's Hospital Colorado - that treat more than two million adult and pediatric patients each year. Innovative, interconnected and highly collaborative, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus delivers life-changing treatments, patient care and professional training and conducts world-renowned research fueled by over $690 million in research grants. For more information, visit www.cuanschutz.edu.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study reveals unexpected importance of the thymus in adults  

2023-08-03

BOSTON – The thymus gland—which produces immune T cells before birth and during childhood— is often regarded as nonfunctional in adults, and it’s sometimes removed during cardiac surgery for easier access to the heart and major blood vessels. New research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and published in the New England Journal of Medicine has uncovered evidence that the thymus is in fact critical for adult health generally and for preventing cancer and perhaps autoimmune disease. To determine whether the thymus provides health benefits to adults, the team evaluated the risk of death, cancer, ...

Workers are less productive and make more typos in the afternoon — especially on Fridays

2023-08-03

If there’s one thing most office workers can agree on, it’s that they tend to feel less productive toward the end of the day and the end of each work week. Now, a team of researchers at Texas A&M University has found objective evidence of this phenomenon in action. A recent interdisciplinary study at the Texas A&M School of Public Health used a novel method of data collection to show that employees really are less active and more prone to mistakes on afternoons and Fridays, with Friday afternoon representing the lowest point of worker productivity. The ...

ORNL researcher, team received honors for advanced alloy development with industry

2023-08-02

Dean Pierce of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a research team led by ORNL’s Alex Plotkowski were honored by DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office for development of novel high-performance alloys that can withstand extreme environments. At this year’s Vehicle Technologies Annual Merit Review, held virtually on June 12, VTO recognized Pierce, an R&D staff scientist in the Physical Sciences Directorate, and the DuAlumin-3D research team under Plotkowski. VTO honored Pierce, a member of ORNL’s Alloy Behavior and Design group, ...

A more holistic and efficient way of testing PPE

2023-08-02

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A team at Sandia National Laboratories has developed a faster and more comprehensive way of testing personal protective equipment, or PPE. The basic principle: modeling a device to fit the human form and human behavior. When COVID-19 hit, PPE testing became an urgent need. In March 2020, when the country went into lockdown, many people turned to Sandia for PPE testing support. They were trying to bring new masks to the market, provide quality assurance for imported masks and vet cleaning processes for reuse of single-use PPE. “Whether using in-house or commercial filter ...

True shape of lithium revealed for the first time in UCLA research

2023-08-02

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries power smartphones, electric vehicles and storage for solar and wind energy, among other technologies. They descend from another technology, the lithium-metal battery, that hasn’t been developed or adopted as broadly. There’s a reason for that: While lithium-metal batteries have the potential to hold about double the energy that lithium-ion batteries can, they also present a far greater risk of catching fire or even exploding. Now, a study by members of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA reveals a fundamental discovery that could lead to safer lithium-metal ...

New study: Political animosity is global

2023-08-02

EAST LANSING, Mich. – A new study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers across six different countries found that affective polarization, or the tendency to dislike people who belong to opposing political parties while favoring people from their own political party, is a global bias — not just an American one. The research further indicates that the dislike grows stronger when two people think about political issues the same way but come away with different beliefs about those issues. For instance, two people from two separate political parties both may think that tax policy and ...

Public invited to follow Bering Land Bridge research project

2023-08-02

The public can follow a team of scientists aboard the research vessel Sikuliaq as they spend the month of August studying conditions that existed on the Bering Land Bridge during the last ice age. The project, led by University of Alaska Fairbanks geology professor Sarah Fowell, will collect samples from beneath the sea floor to learn about the vegetation and climate of the region about 25,000 years ago. The project team will share updates during their journey via several digital and social media channels: Facebook Aboard the ...

Modern antidepressants may reduce risk of relapse for patients with bipolar depression

2023-08-02

Treatment with modern antidepressants may help prevent patients with bipolar disorder from relapsing into a depressive episode, according to an international clinical trial led by researchers at the University of British Columbia. The findings, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, challenge current clinical practice guidelines and could change how bipolar depression is managed globally. “Treating depression in bipolar disorder is challenging and the depressive episodes can be quite devastating for patients ...

Scientists discover mechanisms that could explain high risk of complications from lung infections in Down syndrome

2023-08-02

AURORA, Colo. (August 2, 2023) – Individuals with Down syndrome, the genetic condition caused by triplication of human chromosome 21, also known as trisomy 21, display a very high risk of hospitalization and mortality after developing lung infections. Respiratory disease is second only to congenital heart defects as a cause of death among children with Down syndrome, and lower respiratory tract pathology is the most common cause of acute hospital admissions in this population. Furthermore, adults with Down syndrome have a much higher risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. Despite many research efforts, ...

Scientists view the “transition state” of a photochemical reaction in real-time

2023-08-02

The Science In chemical reactions, molecules proceed during their transformation from reactants into reaction products through a critical geometry. In chemistry, geometry refers to the arrangement of atoms in a molecule. Scientists often call critical geometry in reactions a transition state. This state has an almost incomprehensibly short lifetime of less than one millionth of one millionth of a second. Scientists recently captured a critical geometry using the ultra-high speed “electron camera” at SLAC. In combination with quantum simulations of the reaction, ...

Cultivating global engagement in bioengineering education to train students skills in biomedical device design and innovation

Black, Hispanic, and American Indian adolescents likelier than white adolescents to be tested for drugs, alcohol at pediatric trauma centers

Pterosaurs needed feet on the ground to become giants

Scientists uncover auditory “sixth sense” in geckos

Almost half of persons who inject drugs (PWID) with endocarditis will die within five years; women are disproportionately affected

Unleashing the power of generative AI on smart collaborative innovation network platform to empower research and technology innovation

[Press-News.org] New HIV drug formulation could improve treatment outcomes for children worldwide
Worldwide CU Anschutz researchers helped evaluate a new drug formulation for children with HIV

New HIV drug formulation could improve treatment outcomes for children worldwide

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: