MECHANISMS IN ENDOCRINOLOGY: Metabolic and body composition effects of newer antiretrovirals in HIV-infected patients

Abstract

In the absence of a cure, HIV-infected patients are being successfully treated with antiretroviral therapies (ART) and living longer. Indeed, an increasing number of HIV-infected patients are living beyond the age of 50 years, and in that regard, the use of ART has transformed HIV into a chronic medical condition. As more HIV-infected patients are virologically controlled and living longer, the trajectory of disease morbidity has shifted, however, primarily from opportunistic infections and immune dysfunction to metabolic complications. Evidence suggests that HIV-infected patients acquire significant metabolic risks, including lipodystrophic changes, subclinical atherosclerosis, and insulin resistance. The etiology of these metabolic complications specifically in HIV-infected patients is not entirely clear but may be related to a complex interaction between long-term consequences of infection and HIV itself, chronic use of antiretrovirals, and underlying inflammatory processes. Previous classes of ART, such as protease inhibitors (PIs) and reverse transcriptase inhibitors, have been implicated in altering fat redistribution and lipid and glucose homeostasis. Advances in drug development have introduced newer ART with strategies to target novel mechanisms of action and improve patient adherence with multi-class drug combinations. In this review, we will focus on these newer classes of ART, including selected entry inhibitors, integrase inhibitors, and multi-class drug combinations, and two newer PIs, and the potential of these newer agents to cause metabolic complications in HIV-infected patients. Taken together, further reduction of morbidity in HIV-infected patients will require increasing awareness of the deleterious metabolic complications of ART with subsequent management to mitigate these risks.