Stavudine, also known as Zerit or d4T, is a type of medicine called a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI). This class of medicines blocks reverse transcriptase, a protein that HIV needs to make more copies of itself. Stavudine was approved by the FDA on June 24, 1994, for use in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV infection in adults and children. Stavudine may also be used to prevent health care workers and others from getting HIV infection after they accidentally come into contact with the virus on the job; however, this practice does not have FDA approval. Stavudine does not cure or prevent HIV infection or AIDS and does not reduce the risk of passing the virus to other people.
SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing the global COVID-19 pandemic, uses a protein called polymerase to replicate its genome inside infected human cells.
An international team of scientists, led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers, has created a human stem cell-based model of a rare, but devastating, inherited neurological autoimmune condition called Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome (AGS).
Ethosomes are ethanolic nanovesicles that possess abundant amount of ethanol in its core which provides fluidity to the lipid bilayers and thus by this effect, improves the delivery of molecules into the deep skin layers.
A study led by University of Massachusetts Medical School professor and immunologist Katherine Luzuriaga, MD, and Johns Hopkins Children's Center virologist Deborah Persaud, MD, highlights the long-term benefits of early antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiated in infants.
This post in the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog examines the use of stavudine, "also known as d4T, an antiretroviral treatment that was dropped in wealthy countries years ago and that the World Health Organization has recommended stop being included in treatment programs," to treat HIV in Malawi.
A Johns Hopkins expert in the drug treatment of HIV disease and AIDS is spearheading an international effort to radically shift the manufacturing and prescribing of combination therapies widely credited in the last decade for keeping the disease in check for 8 million of the 34 million infected people worldwide.
Using a mathematical formula that carefully measures the degree to which HIV infection of immune system cells is stalled by antiretroviral therapy, AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins have calculated precisely how well dozens of such anti-HIV drugs work, alone or in any of 857 likely combinations, in suppressing the virus. Results of the team's latest research reveal how some combinations work better than others at impeding viral replication, and keeping the disease in check.
Gilead Sciences, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Viread in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in pediatric patients ages 2-12.
Mylan Inc. today announced an expanded licensing agreement between Gilead Sciences Inc. and Mylan's Matrix Laboratories Limited.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced a new agreement to expand access to Reyataz (atazanavir sulfate). The immunity-from-suit agreement signed with Matrix Laboratories Limited, a Mylan Company, enables the generic company to manufacture and sell atazanavir, as well as stavudine and didanosine, in sub-Saharan Africa and India.
Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced results from several new data analyses from the pivotal Phase III studies evaluating the addition of its investigational oral protease inhibitor VICTRELIS to peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin in adult patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infection.
Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced that several new data analyses from Phase III studies of VICTRELIS, its investigational oral hepatitis C protease inhibitor, will be presented at The International Liver CongressTM / 46th European Association for the Study of the Liver annual meeting.
Earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy should be the highest priority for global expansion of HIV patient care. This finding, from a paper published in this week's PLoS Medicine, should help resource-limited nations to phase in the implementation of the new 2010 WHO recommendations for HIV treatment. "Immediate scale-up of the entire WHO guideline package may be prohibitively expensive in some settings," said lead author Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA.
Merck today reported initial results from the Phase III study investigating the efficacy and safety of a treatment regimen including ISENTRESS® (raltegravir) Tablets once daily in treatment-naïve adult patients infected with HIV-1. ISENTRESS is indicated in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced adults.
Merck today announced that final results from two pivotal Phase III studies of boceprevir, its investigational oral hepatitis C protease inhibitor, will be presented in oral plenary sessions at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), which is taking place from Oct. 29 through Nov. 2 in Boston. Results for boceprevir in response-guided therapy strategies, which evaluated treatment durations shorter than current standard therapy, will be presented during the meeting.
Nevirapine is widely used to help prevent mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus. In cases where the infants are nonetheless infected with HIV virus at birth, the standard treatment is to use protease inhibitors (PI) to reduce the amount of virus in their bloodstream. A new study involving 195 infants in South Africa found that children who were treated with PI and then switched to nevirapine were more likely to maintain virus below the detection threshold of the test than infants who continued to receive PI.
HIV infected children in South Africa who were exposed to the drug nevirapine at birth (used to help prevent mother to child HIV transmission) and then received a protease inhibitor (PI) for viral suppression achieved lower rates of viremia (virus in the blood stream) if they were switched to nevirapine, compared to children who continued on the PI-based regimen, according to a study in the September 8 issue of JAMA.
Merck reported that two pivotal Phase III registration studies for boceprevir, its investigational oral hepatitis C protease inhibitor, have been completed and met the primary endpoints: in both studies in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infection, the addition of boceprevir to treatment with PEGINTRON® and REBETOL® significantly increased the number of patients who achieved sustained virologic response, compared to control groups that received Peg/riba plus placebo.
Merck announced a non-exclusive license agreement with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings for the commercialization of a genetic test that may help predict the response of patients with Hepatitis C virus infection to peginterferon alpha-based therapy.
U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger on Wednesday announced the U.S. would provide $26.5 million (2.7 billion Kenyan shillings) between 2009 and 2013 to fight HIV/AIDS in Kenya, the Daily Nation reports (Sinundu, 12/16). In related news, the Standard reports the Kenyan government will be begin the gradual phase out of the antiretroviral drug, Stavudine, which is known to cause adverse side effects (Mwai, 12/15).