Hydroxyurea - when is the best time to use it?

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Hydroxyurea is still finding its place in HIV therapy, but recent data may help to clarify the role of this drug.

Originally explored as an agent which could boost ddI levels, hydroxyurea has

subsequently emerged as a potentially useful partner for several drugs,

Glossary

salvage therapy

Any treatment regimen used after a number of earlier regimens have failed. People with HIV who have experienced side-effects and/or developed resistance to many HIV drugs receive salvage therapy, sometimes consisting of a large number of medications.

phosphorylation

Process by which the NRTI drugs are converted within human cells into forms that inhibit HIV.

sensitivity

When using a diagnostic test, the probability that a person who does have a medical condition will receive the correct test result (i.e. positive). 

nucleoside

A precursor to a building block of DNA or RNA. Nucleosides must be chemically changed into nucleotides before they can be used to make DNA or RNA. 

in vitro

Latin term for experiments conducted in artificial environments, e.g. in test-tubes.

including d4T, adefovir, PMPA and 3TC. A very useful review of the newest

studies appeared in a recent edition of US newsletter Treatment Issues,

highlighting a number of findings:

- hydroxyurea improves the phosphorylation of d4T in

patients who are no longer responding to long-term nucleoside therapy

- hydroxyurea also improves the phosphorylation of AZT and

3TC

- hydroxyurea partially restores sensitivity to ddI,

adefovir and PMPA when co-administered with these drugs in vitro

- despite being touted as salvage therapy, hydroxyurea seems

to have transient benefits at this stage of disease. In earlier disease its use

in combination with ddI compares favourably with more complex regimens (although

study numbers are small).

Read the full report at

face=Arial>http://www.thebody.com/gmhc/issues/julaug98/hydrox.html

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