Important note: Information in this article was accurate in October 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.AIDSWEEKLY Plus; October 7, 2002
Michael Greer, Senior Medical Writer
"Filgrastim, or granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, reverses neutropenia associated with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections," explained Michael Davidson and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Northwestern University in Chicago, and Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen, Inc.
Davidson and coauthors found that viral loads dropped more slowly in patients receiving filgrastim with HIV therapy although the discrepancy might not be significant.
The researchers conducted a trial comparing potential CMV retinitis treatments in HIV patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy. A total of 72 patients participated in this study, half of whom received supplemental filgrastim to raise low neutrophil counts, they said.
Both groups of patients initially showed similar average rates of HIV viremia reduction, according to the report. After adjusting for variables such as CD4 cell count and baseline HIV RNA level, filgrastim-treated patients had an average viral load of 5.11 log units, compared with the average of 4.87 log units for patients who did not receive filgrastim. However, the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.12).
The average rate of viral load reduction after adjustment was 0.08 log units per month for filgrastim-treated patients, compared with 0.21 log units per month for their counterparts (p=0.08) (Influence of filgrastim (granulocyte colony-stimulating factor) on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA in patients with cytomegalovirus retinitis. J Infect Dis 2002 Oct 1;186(7):1013-8.
"This latter difference has borderline statistical significance, which suggests that filgrastim may reduce the decline of HIV-1 RNA loads," Davidson and colleagues concluded.
The corresponding author for this report is Michael Davidson, Center for Clinical Trials, Dept. of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University, Rm. 5010, 615 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. E-mail: mdavidso@gci.net.
A search at www.NewsRx.net using the search term "AIDS and HIV therapy" yielded 1193 articles in 29 specialized reports.
Key points reported in this study include:
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
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