AIDS cocktail

Researchers are trying to reduce the number of pills needed by AIDS patients.The public perception of AIDS treatment — a cocktail of many different pills taken several times a day — has largely been erased in the U.S. thanks to advances in drug design and delivery. Many patients are able to keep sufficiently high medication levels in their bodies with once-daily doses. Now researchers in an international collaborative that includes the WUSM Aids Clinical Trials Unit have begun an ambitious new study to see if this treatment paradigm can be implemented in Third World countries.

Researchers are trying to reduce the number of pills needed by AIDS patients.The public perception of AIDS treatment — a cocktail of many different pills taken several times a day and sometimes even in the middle of the night — has largely been erased in the United States thanks to advances in drug design and delivery. Although textbook treatment guidelines still call for patients to take a few AIDS medications twice a day, many patients in industrialized countries are now able to keep sufficiently high medication levels in their bodies with once-daily doses. Now researchers in an international collaborative that includes the Aids Clinical Trials Unit (ACTU) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have begun an ambitious new study to see if this treatment paradigm can be implemented in Third World countries.

Ritonavir may slow bone loss in AIDS patients.In a collaborative study initiated by their clinical colleagues, scientists at the School of Medicine have shown that the AIDS drug ritonavir suppresses the creation and activity of cells that dismantle bone, potentially slowing bone loss and lowering the risk of osteoporosis in AIDS patients. The findings may encourage clinicians to consider permanently keeping ritonavir or a similar bone-sparing drug in the changing mixture of treatments for AIDS patients.