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HIV Drugs May Be Tied to Early Aging
Posted 27 Jun 2011 by Drugs.com
SUNDAY, June 26 – An older class of antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV can cause premature aging, a new study suggests. Researchers examined muscle cells from HIV patients and found that zidovudine (AZT) and other antiviral drugs known as nucleoside analogue reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) damage DNA in mitochondria, the energy factories in cells. The study is published June 26 in the journal Nature Genetics. The finding may help explain why some HIV patients treated with antiviral drugs show advanced signs of frailty and age-related diseases such as dementia and cardiovascular disease at an early age. "HIV clinics were seeing patients who had otherwise been successfully treated but who showed signs of being much older than their years. This was a real mystery," Professor Patrick Chinnery, a senior fellow in clinical science at the Institute of Genetic Medicine at ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection, Baraclude, Hepsera, Viread, Entecavir, Tenofovir, Epivir, Lamivudine, Ziagen, Retrovir, Telbivudine, Abacavir, Didanosine, Stavudine, Adefovir
Anti-HIV Drugs May Help Prevent Spread of Virus
Posted 27 May 2010 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, May 27 – People who are HIV-positive can lower their risk for transmitting the virus to their partners by 90 percent by taking antiretroviral drugs, new research has found. Antiretroviral drug therapy helps reduce HIV levels in the infected person's blood, which in turn makes the person less infectious to others. The drugs are commonly taken in the United States by people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In the new research, published online May 26 in The Lancet, investigators studied more than 3,400 heterosexual couples in seven African countries. In each couple, one person was infected with HIV and the other was not. No one in the study was taking antiretroviral drugs. Health workers counseled the couples about preventing HIV transmission and followed up with them for two years. During that time, periodic blood tests measured HIV levels in the blood, and people were ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection, Atripla, Truvada, Baraclude, Kaletra, Hepsera, Combivir, Ritonavir, Lexiva, Viread, Norvir Soft Gelatin, Entecavir, Norvir, Nevirapine, Reyataz