title: A pilot study of hydroxyurea among patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease receiving chronic didanosine therapy: Canadian HIV trials network protocol 080.
abstract: To assess the in vivo short-term antiretroviral effect of hydroxyurea in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected persons chronically treated with didanosine (ddI), 26 patients with CD4 cell counts between 100 and 350 were enrolled in a 12-week, open-label pilot study and randomly assigned to receive 500 or 1000 mg/day hydroxyurea. Clinical status, laboratory toxicities, CD4 lymphocyte count, and HIV RNA plasma virus load were assessed weekly. Median declines from baseline of 0.02 and 0.63 log10 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL of plasma were observed for the 500- and 1000-mg/day groups, respectively (P = .02). CD4 cell counts did not change significantly with the addition of hydroxyurea; however, a small but statistically significant decrease in counts was observed during the washout phase. Both doses of hydroxyurea were well-tolerated. These results demonstrate a substantial decrease in plasma virus load when 1000 mg of hydroxyurea is administered over 1 month as adjunctive therapy to ddI among HIV-infected persons with 100-350 CD4 cells/mm3.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Montaner
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zala
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Conway
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Raboud
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Patenaude
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rae
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: O'Shaughnessy
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Schechter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D016049:Didanosine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D006918:Hydroxyurea / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D012367:RNA, Viral; D016049:Didanosine; D006918:Hydroxyurea