Combination of tenofovir and lamivudine versus tenofovir after lamivudine failure for therapy of hepatitis B in HIV-coinfection.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

At present sequential monotherapy for chronic hepatitis B with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-polymerase inhibitors is clinical practice. It is unknown to date whether combination therapy with lamivudine plus tenofovir could be superior to sequential therapy with tenofovir after the occurrence of lamivudine resistance.

METHODS:

We conducted a multicenter, 1: 2 matched pair analysis comparing patients with HBV/HIV-coinfection starting an antiretroviral regimen including tenofovir plus lamivudine with patients who had highly replicative, lamivudine resistant HBe-antigen positive chronic hepatitis B and started with tenofovir as the only active HBV polymerase inhibitor subsequent to lamivudine.

RESULTS:

At baseline patients on tenofovir plus lamivudine (n = 25) had a median HBV DNA of 5.9 x 10(7) copies/ml compared to 1.37 x 10(8) copies/ml in the tenofovir arm (n = 50; P = 0.32). A sustained undetectable HBV DNA < 1000 copies/ml was achieved in 19/25 (76%) patients on tenofovir plus lamivudine and in 42/50 (84%) on tenofovir (P = 0.53). A loss of HBe-antigen was observed in 9/25 (36%) patients on tenofovir plus lamivudine and in 12/50 (24%) patients on tenofovir (P = 0.29). HBs-antigen loss was found in 1/25 (4%) and 3/50 (6%) patients.

CONCLUSIONS:

In this cohort of HBV/HIV-coinfected individuals, full HBV DNA suppression was achieved in the majority of patients independent of treatment allocation. Loss of HBe- and HBs-antigen was not different between the two study arms. Over a median treatment period of 116 weeks tenofovir was as effective as tenofovir plus lamivudine. Longer treatment periods may be needed to evaluate potential benefits of first-line combination therapy for chronic hepatitis B.

• Authors: Guenther Schmutz, Mark Nelson, Thomas Lutz, Julie Sheldon, Raffaele Bruno, Florian von Boemmel, Christian Hoffmann, Juergen Rockstroh, Albrecht Stoehr, Eva Wolf, Vincent Soriano, Florian Berger, Thomas Berg, Amina Carlebach, Carolynne Schwarze-Zander, Dirk Schürmann, Hans Jaeger, Stefan Mauss
• Journal: AIDS (London, England) (AIDS) Vol. 20 Issue 15 Pg. 1951-4 (Oct 03 2006) ISSN: 0269-9370 [Print] England
• PMID: 16988516 (Publication Type: Clinical Trial, Comparative Study, Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Anti-HIV Agents
• DNA, Viral
• Hepatitis B Surface Antigens
• Hepatitis B e Antigens
• Organophosphonates
• Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors
• Lamivudine
• Tenofovir
• Adenine

Topics

• Adenine (analogs & derivatives, therapeutic use)
• Anti-HIV Agents (therapeutic use)
• Chi-Square Distribution
• DNA, Viral (analysis)
• Drug Resistance, Viral (genetics)
• HIV Infections (drug therapy, immunology, virology)
• HIV-1
• Hepatitis B Surface Antigens (analysis)
• Hepatitis B e Antigens (analysis)
• Hepatitis B virus (genetics)
• Hepatitis B, Chronic (drug therapy, immunology, virology)
• Humans
• Lamivudine (therapeutic use)
• Organophosphonates (therapeutic use)
• Prospective Studies
• Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (therapeutic use)
• Statistics, Nonparametric
• Tenofovir
• Treatment Failure