New method results in more cost-effective treatment of HIV
Sub-Saharan countries lack the resources for HIV-treatment surveillance and follow-up. Continuous surveillance of treatment is important to prevent from over- or under-treatment. Over-treatment can potentially result in serious side effects while under-treatment can increase the risk of resistance to HIV medications. Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy have now developed a method that may lead to safer, simpler and more cost-effective treatment surveillance worldwide.
Since 2005, AIDS mortality has been reduced by 30 percent in sub-Saharan countries, due to increased availability of effective medications.
This does not mean the problem is solved. Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy are working to increase survival rates and reduce the spread of the disease, and to better customize medication use: insufficient doses may cause the HIV virus to develop resistance to medications; excessive doses may cause serious adverse effects.
In Sweden and other resource-rich countries, medication use is routinely overseen. Researchers in Gothenburg have now developed a simple, inexpensive method that dramatically improves the possibility for customizing medication doses for people with AIDS.
The focus is on bilirubin, an endogenous body compound that, in one study of 222 AIDS patients, demonstrated the potential for use to estimate blood concentrations of one of the most widely used and recommended HIV medications, atazanavir.
“Measuring medication concentrations in the blood requires expensive, sophisticated equipment, qualified lab personnel and suitable laboratory facilities—something often lacking in sub-Saharan countries. Our method enables medical staff to quickly determine whether atazanavir levels are too low. It makes monitoring easier, more available and less expensive, which can benefit AIDS care in Sweden and the developed world,” says researcher Dinko Rekić who reports on the method in his upcoming thesis.
A single bilirubin test costs just one tenth of current testing methods. Developing countries already have the necessary equipment. In addition, newer instruments for measuring bilirubin are battery-operated, which increases availability. The actual measurement is taken by placing the instrument on the skin, eliminating the need for blood tests and clean laboratory environments.
“We hope the new tool will benefit patients and healthcare personnel regardless of where in the world they live,” says Dinko Rekić.
The thesis “Quantitative clinical pharmacological studies on efavirenz and atazanavir in the treatment of HIV-1 infection” will be defended on December 14, 2012.
Link to thesis: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/29725
Contact:
Dinko Rekić, doctoral student at the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University
+46 (0)73-635 71 21
+46 (0)31-786 32 40
dinko.rekic@gu.se
Press Officer
Krister Svahn
Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg
46766-18 38 69
4631-786 3869
krister.svahn@sahlgrenska.gu.se
The Sahlgrenska Academy is the faculty of health sciences at the University of Gothenburg. Education and research are conducted within the fields of pharmacy, medicine, odontology and health care sciences. About 4,000 undergraduate students and 1,200 postgraduate students are enrolled at Sahlgrenska Academy. Around 1,400 people work at the Sahlgrenska Academy. 850 of them are researchers and/or teachers. 2009 Sahlgrenska Academy had a turnover of 2,100 million SEK.
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