FRIDAY, Sept. 19, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Researchers at the University at Buffalo's Laboratory for Antiviral Research are studying the effects on patients of interactions between antiretroviral HIV drugs and other medications such as antidepressants or birth control pills.
"Fifteen years ago, we were treating (HIV/AIDS patients) with one basic goal in mind: to prolong their lives," principal investigator Gene Morse, professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmacy Practice and associate dean of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, says in a news release.
"Now we have the drugs to suppress viral replication, but with them come another set of complications. Many of these drugs are interacting, and it has been difficult to study all possible interactions during the FDA development process. We want to find out their net effect," Morse says.
He and his colleagues are developing new ways to test the blood and cells of HIV/AIDS patients for these drug interactions.
During the study, blood samples will be collected from 500 patients enrolled at four sites -- Montefiore Hospital in New York City, the University of Rochester, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Miami.
As well as examining interactions and blood concentrations, Morse and his team will study the levels of multiple drugs that bind to plasma proteins in each patient.
"The amount of plasma protein-binding can vary from patient to patient and that can have important clinical implications. For example, the more highly bound to protein the drug is in plasma, then the less there is to get to the tissue sites where HIV can replicate," Morse says.
More information
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