Abacavir is a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor largely used as part of the antiretroviral therapy in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-infected patients. Some individuals (2-9%) who start an abacavir treatment show an immunologic reaction indicated as hypersensitivity reaction syndrome (HSR) that is often responsible for therapy discontinuation and could represent a life-threatening ...

OBJECTIVES The D:A:D study group reported a 1.9-fold increased relative risk (RR) of myocardial infarction (MI) associated with current or recent use of abacavir. The number needed to harm (NNH) incorporates information about the underlying risk of MI and the increased RR of MI in patients taking abacavir. METHODS NNH was calculated as the reciprocal of the difference between the underlying r...

BACKGROUND The presence of the HLA-B*57:01 allele in HIV-infected subjects is associated with a higher risk of abacavir-associated hypersensitivity reaction (ABC HSR). HLA-B*57:01 allele prevalence varies in different populations, but HLA-B*57:01 testing with immunological confirmation has had a negative predictive value for ABC HSR between 97 and 100%. METHODS In the ASSURE study (EPZ113734)...

BACKGROUND This study examined the effect of abacavir on acute changes in biomarkers associated with cardiovascular dysfunction. METHODS Among the Study to Understand the Natural History of HIV/AIDS in the Era of Effective therapy (SUN) participants, we identified 25 individuals (cases) who were HLA-B5701-negative and who had ≥ 2 weeks without abacavir exposure at one visit and ≥ 2 weeks with...

Human serum albumin (HSA) participates to heme scavenging, in turn HSA-heme binds gaseous diatomic ligands at the heme-Fe-atom. Here, the effect of abacavir and warfarin on denitrosylation kinetics of HSA-heme-Fe(II)-NO (i.e., k(off)) is reported. In the absence of drugs, the value of k(off) is (1.3+/-0.2) x 10(-4)s(-1). Abacavir and warfarin facilitate NO dissociation from HSA-heme-Fe(II)-NO, ...

Abacavir (ABC), a nucleoside-analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitor, is associated with severe hypersensitivity reactions that are thought to involve the activation of CD8+ T cells in a HLA-B*57:01-restricted manner. Recent studies have claimed that noncovalent interactions of ABC with HLA-B*57:01 are responsible for the immunological reactions associated with ABC. However, the formation of h...

Abacavir is a potent new carbocyclic nucleoside analogue. We employed our hollow-fiber pharmacodynamic modeling system to examine the antiretroviral effects of different abacavir exposures, as well as the impact of the schedule of drug administration on efficacy. Dose ranging of abacavir revealed that a concentration of four times the 50% effective concentration (EC(50)) (approximately the EC(9...

Data from a major new trial called START II (Selection of Thymidine Analog Therapy), was presented at this year's Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) conference. One trial compared d4T/ddI/IDV combination therapy with AZT/3TC/IDV in treatment-naive individuals. A second trial, CNA 3003, compared triple NRTI therapy with AZT/3TC/abacavir to dual therapy with AZT/3TC; patients who added...