Effect of abacavir on sustained virologic response to HCV treatment in HIV/HCV co-infected patients, COHERE in Eurocoord. BMC Infectious Diseases
Smit et al. on behalf of COHERE in Eurocoord aimed to examine the influence of abacavir (ABC) on the response to pegylated interferon and ribavirin (RBV) containing hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment in HIV/HCV co-infected patients. In the multivariate analyses there was no association between ABC-containing regimens and a higher or lower likelihood of achieving a sustained virological response rate (SVR). A boosted protease inhibitor (PI) regimen was significantly associated with a lower probability of achieving a SVR compared to NNRTI-based regimens (29% versus 37%). Overall, the different backbones were not associated with a low SVR with the exception of the zidovudine + lamivudine and stavudine + lamivudine combinations.
In conclusion, a potential negative impact of a boosted PI regimen may warrant further evaluation but the authors found no evidence of a harmful effect of ABC-containing regimens in future direct acting antivirals (DAA) and RBV combinations.